MIAMI, United States. – The Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS, for its acronym in English) of the United States, Alejandro Mayorkas, assured this monday during a visit to Miami that deportation flights to Cuba have not resumed, despite the November 2022 announcement.
“What we are implementing are the immigration agreements,” the US official said at his press conference. “We are building the capacity of our consular offices there [en Cuba] to reissue visas for people to arrive safely in the United States. In the same way, we are modifying the Parole Program for Cuban Family Reunification. One of the elements of the migration agreements is to resume expulsion flights, which we have not done yet, ”he explained.
In November 2022 transcended what isThe Cuban regime would accept deportation flights from the United States.
At the time, a source familiar with the matter told the Reuters news agency that there was no formal new agreement for regular deportation flights, but that the island’s regime had agreed to receive occasional groups of deportees.
Regular deportations of Cubans stopped during the COVID-19 pandemic, although the United States continued to deport a small number of Cubans via commercial airlines, another unnamed US official told Reuters.
In fiscal year 2022 they arrived in the US through the border with Mexico more than 220,000 Cubansin what constitutes the largest recorded exodus of Cubans to the northern country.
In the same period, more than 6,000 Cuban rafters arrived on the Florida coast, although most of them were returned to Cuba in Coast Guard boats.
During his visit to Miami this Monday, Mayorkas also assured that the humanitarian program for Cubans, Venezuelans, Haitians and Nicaraguans applied since the beginning of January had reduced the irregular arrival of these migrants by 90% and described it as “incomprehensible”. a lawsuit filed to stop himin accordance with an EFE report.
