Cubans with active travel permits stranded in Brazil by airline decision

SAN LUIS POTOSÍ, Mexico.- Cubans approved for the humanitarian parole program and with their active travel permits have been stranded in Brazil by decision of the airlines, according to a report by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Marti News.

Although the US authorities announced, after pausing the parole programthat it was possible to travel if they already had the approved permit, some Cubans have not been able to do so.

Cuban migrants commented to Marti News that airlines do not allow them to board flights, after the suspension of travel permits from the humanitarian parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans following allegations of fraud.

“At the São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport, they do not allow us to travel with that document. In our USCIS accounts, the permits remain active, but what they tell us is that the program is stopped,” Yailin Herrero explained to the media.

She and her husband have permission to enter the United States. However, an employee of the airline Latam, where they bought the tickets, asked them for their documentation, “handed it to CBP and they said we couldn’t board.”

“We asked Delta and American Airlines and they told us the same thing,” the Cuban confirmed.

Another stranding at the Brazilian airport, and in the same situation, confirmed that the ban affected a group of Cubans.

She and her partner intended to fly with American Airlines, but after requesting the permits, they were denied the opportunity. “They take a photo of the passport and the permits and send them somewhere, supposedly to US immigration, and then they come and tell us that we cannot board,” she told Marti News.

Despite the willingness of the U.S. State Department to respect travel permits already granted to beneficiaries of humanitarian parole, in practice, the testimonies of Cubans reflect a different reality.

Journalist Daniel Benítez presented testimonies, in his Youtube channelof Cubans with an exit permit approved in June, but cancelled suddenly, preventing them from traveling.

Following the circulation of an internal report exposing significant levels of fraud in the humanitarian parole program, the U.S. government has temporarily suspended travel permits for beneficiaries of the process.

Shortly after, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of that country clarified that Applicants who already had an approved travel permit could enter the United States.

The parole program allows up to 30,000 nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela (CHNV) travel to the USA each month and legally enter into the administration’s parole if they meet certain conditions.

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