The panic of deportations has also been installed among the Cubans newly arrived in the United States before the new immigration directives of the Trump administration.
This feeling originates in the fact that the new government considers the Parole Program of the Biden administration, an “abuse” of a prerogative given by Congress.
Republican logic argue that both the Parole and CBP One program must be analyzed “case by case”, not massively.
These elements were contained, among other places, both in the lawsuit of the twenty republican states against the Parole program, with Texas at the head (2023), as in a hearing of the border security subcommittees and compliance and supervision, investigations and responsibility of the National Security Department of the House of Representatives, headed by the Republicans Clay Iggins and Dan Bishop (2024).
Being presidential candidate Trump himself, was in charge of doing an impeccable job in favor of creating that panic, preparing the land in the media.
For example, in September 2024, during An interview With the chain Fox News, Trump said he considered the beneficiaries of the Parole “illegal immigrants” who should not be in the United States. And undertook it against the program because it allowed them to enter the country.
He also stressed that, to win in November, he would close the CBP One application and expel those who had arrived in that way. “I would revoke it,” he said about CBP One, which he cataloged as “bad.” But it went further: the Parole was “even worse.”
“Prepare to leave”: Trump’s threat to the beneficiaries of Parole
On the other hand, more recently, an internal note of the DHS to which the CBS chain He has only increased those fears by making known that “the probation status of those who have entered the United States with the Parole Program” would be revoked, which “would place them in deportation process if they have not requested or obtained another benefit migratory such as asylum, a green card or temporary protection status (TPS) ”.
A hat to the more than 530 thousand Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who arrived in the United States under that program.
“Prepare to leave”
But in reality the news is not surprised. In addition to that “prepare to leave” of the electoral phase, the executive order “Securing Our Borders”signed by Trump on January 24, establishes the following:
“End all categorical probation programs that are contrary to the United States policies established in my executive orders, including the program known as” Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan processes. “
And orders the “immediate removal of all foreigners who enter or remain in violation of the federal law.”
Due to its impacts, implications and consequences, the filtered document prefigures a range of legal and political options. One is the possible reaction of a federal judge before this issue. Another, lobbying with the structures of the Executive Power.
For now, a first consequence is obvious. As Tom Jawetz said, former DHS official, “aim more chaotic“
The case of the I-220A
Document I-220 A, also called the I-220A form, is a low word release order. The United States government confers it to some people detained at the border and then released by immigration officials.
This “low recognition order” releases those involved from federal custody as long as they meet conditions such as attending the hearings of the Immigration Court, not violating local and federal laws and, if required, carrying an electronic shackle in the ankle.
The ICE portal says about it:
If you are not detained for ICE, you must attend all scheduled hearings, appointments in the local office and update your postal address. If you do not attend judicial audiences, it can be expelled from the United States. The terms of your release may require that you attend the appointments in the ICE local office.
His judicial hearing is the opportunity to explain why he thinks he is eligible to receive relief or protection against expulsion. It is extremely important to attend your judicial hearing. If you do not attend your judicial hearing, it can result in a court order or even in your expulsion from the United States.
Cubans in Miami against decision that prevents them from legally residing in the US
Although before August 2022 Cubans with I-220A had managed to become residents, the truth is that most have not succeeded.
The problem occurred in the month mentioned above, when a Miami judge He granted the permanent residence, under the adjustment law, to a group of Cubans after they were arrested near the border between the United States and Mexico “without being inspected or on probation.” They were released with an I-220A.
But the Department of National Security challenged the judge’s decision: “The immigration judge reasoned that the release of the defendants occurred through a concession of humanitarian probation for the operation of the law … We concluded that the immigration judge was wrong” , They said.
Entering the United States with an I-220A document is different from obtaining a humanitarian permit. The Cubans with that document were not eligible to change their immigration status under the adjustment law, they concluded.
After Miami judge
That put them against the wall. In September 2023, the Superior Board of United States Immigration Appeals confirmed that Cubans who entered the country with the I-220A could not resort to the adjustment law to obtain the residence.
Which put on the table a consequence: from that moment, the judges of the immigration courts would have to follow the precedent of the Appeals Board alluded because it was binding, unless a federal court of appeals or the attorney general of The United States arranged otherwise.
The law firm Curbelo Law summarized the situation as follows:
What does this federal failure mean for Cubans? On September 11, 2023, the Immigration Appeals Board of the United States Department of Justice failed against considering the I-220A as a humanitarian permit. This Parole would have allowed eligible immigrants to apply to the Cuban adjustment law. This law was promulgated in 1966 and has since allowed eligible Cubans to adjust their status in the United States to the permanent resident. […] The new decision concluded that entering the United States with this document is different from receiving a humanitarian parole.
And later:
The way to the adjustment law has been increasingly narrow. In 2017, President Barack Obama repealed the law of “dry feet, wet feet.” This law allowed those Cubans who had entered irregularly and/or that they did not meet the admission requirement, which now constitutes a condition sine qua non, be eligible for the benefit of the Cuban adjustment law.
People with an I-220A form can request asylum and try to demonstrate a plausible risk of persecution. However, they will have a pending asylum status and will be required to renew their work permits every two years while their asylum case remains active in the immigration court.
Strictly speaking, dry feet/wet feet is not a “law” but an executive action of President Clinton discontinued by President Obama. But in any way, the important thing is that at that time more than 200 thousand Cubans were pending the decision, aspiring to ask for residence at the time and day of their arrival.
Failure Appeals Board against Considering the I-220A to request Cuban Adjustment Law
The lawyers have advised the bearers of the I-220a to look for other mechanisms to achieve residence, but, above all, ask for political asylum.
“A well -prepared asylum case increases its chances of success. Unfortunately, many cases lack sufficient tests, which makes it difficult to win them. It is essential to seek legal advice from the beginning to guide and represent it in the process. Legal representation can significantly increase your chances of success or provide a specialized evaluation of the viability of your case, ”says a website specialized.
On Sunday, September 17, 2023 groups of Cubans with I-220a met in front of the Versailles restaurant, in Miami, to protest against the decision of the Board, which in fact left them in a legal limbo.
“No one is going to look for them at home, nothing will happen to them. They are going to stay in the United States. And little by little we will legalize them, ”the immigration lawyer then assured them Willy Allen.
They later did the same not only in Miami but also in Houston.
On January 18, 2024, a bipartisan group of the House of Representatives, including Cuban-American Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar, sent him a letter to the Secretary of the Department of National Security (DHS), Alejandro Mayorkas, urging him to grant the status of Parole in Place to any Cuban who would have been issued an I-220A upon arrival in the United States. Many expected a solution, but this did not happen.
With Donald Trump
With Donald Trump in the Oval office, the new thing about deportations is that ICE has more power to perform them in a way Express without the undocumented have to go through a long legal process in the Cortes.
Before, people under this expedited process were the ones who had been in the country for less than 14 days and were arrested a hundred miles from the border. Not anymore.
Now the measure applies to those who are less than two years in any of the 50 states. The order does not distinguish whether the undocumented or not have criminal records.
On January 24, María Elvira Salazar sent him a letter To the Interim Secretary of National Security, Benjamine C. Huffman, urging his department “to continue protecting from deportation to Cubans, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and Haitians with no criminal record and pending cases.”
The Parole Program and the CBP One: Legal Bases of Two Victims of Trumpism
According to statements by immigration lawyer Rosely Chavino to the Univisión chainwith the arrival of Donald Trump to the presidency and his executive orders on the migration issue, to people with I-220a who have a process in court they cannot put them in an expedited deportation process.
Those who run that risk, he said, are those that are not in that case, have less than two years in the United States and that officers can determine that they are inadmissible for not having received a parole.
“It’s hard to understand why some were released with I-220a and others with Parole,” said the lawyer Willy Allen. We do not know with certainty what criteria the officers used in each case. That’s why we are fighting […] For the I-220A to be considered a valid entry under the Cuban adjustment law, such as Parole, and for all Cubans to regularize their situation in the United States, ”he concluded.
