Record number of deportation flights to Cuba: 161 immigrants returned from Miami
Throughout Donald Trump's two terms in office, a total of 4,248 Cubans have been deported, with that number likely to rise in the coming months.
Deportation reference image
A group of 161 Cuban migrants arrived Thursday in Havana after being deported from Miami on a flight that landed at Jose Marti International Airport. This is the eighth air repatriation from U.S. territory so far this year.
Of the total number of returnees, 124 are men and 37 are women. The Ministry of the Interior (MININT) stated that two individuals were taken into custody by authorities, as they are suspected of being “perpetrators of criminal acts” committed before leaving the island.
According to official reports, this operation includes 33 deportation flights from various countries in the region in 2025, returning a total of 1,001 migrants to Cuba, most of whom are from the United States.
Trump: record number of Cubans deported in history
With eight months of his second term added to the deportations from his first (2017-2021), Trump now holds the record for the highest number of Cubans deported in history, with a total of 4,248.
The numbers recorded by previous U.S. presidents fall far short of his: Joe Biden (978), Barack Obama (341), and George W. Bush (416).
Largest air operation to Cuba in more than five years
According to official DHS records, there are 42,084 Cubans with final orders of deportation who are under supervised release in the United States.
">Justice served.
— CBP (@CBP) August 26, 2025
This Cuban national was previously convicted of human smuggling in 2024.
He had recklessly tried to smuggle 29 people, including children, in the back of a tractor trailer.
Border Patrol agents with @USBPChiefMIP picked him up and he's being removed from our… pic.twitter.com/OQSw8KmFtZ
Washington and the Havana regime have a bilateral agreement that all migrants arriving by sea to U.S. territory will be deported to the Caribbean country, however Cuba refuses to receive people who have remained outside their country prior to the January 2017 migration agreements, and only agrees to negotiate any returns on a "case-by-case" basis.
In 2024, 93 returns were carried out from different countries in the region, with a total of 1,384 irregular migrants returned to Cuba, according to official media.
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An exodus fueled by the ongoing crisis
In addition, a total of 8.261 Cubans were registered by U.S. border authorities last October, the first month of fiscal year 2025.
The border agency added that more than 860,000 migrants from the island entered the U.S. territory in the last four years.
Repression and 24-hour blackouts
In recent years, Cuba has experienced an unprecedented migratory exodus, driven by a severe economic crisis marked by food, medicine, and fuel shortages, rampant inflation, frequent power outages, and a partial dollarization of the economy.
On top of the already dire situation, there is increasing repression by the communist regime, a lack of freedoms that has left over 1,100 political prisoners behind bars, according to the organization Prisoners Defenders, and ongoing human rights violations against the Cuban people.
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