By Dario Alejandro Escobar (Joven Cuba)
HAVANA TIMES – Life can take many turns. A few of them, frankly, are nearly unattainable to foretell. For many years, for the overwhelming majority of Cuban emigrants, the US was the vacation spot of selection. The existence of the Cuban Adjustment Act, successive waves of migration, and a well-established group in Florida strengthened the concept that reaching US territory meant that, ultimately, you’ll discover a place the place you possibly can prosper. And generally, that was the case, however that picture is changing into more and more troublesome to reconcile with the scenes produced by Washington’s present immigration coverage.
It’s no secret that the Trump administration has made detention and deportation two pillars of its immigration coverage. Starting with the presidential marketing campaign itself, Trump and his then vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance warned that they might perform mass deportations of migrants. In July 2026, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made 49,571 arrests, the best month-to-month determine of Trump’s second time period. Greater than half of these detained had neither prison convictions nor pending prices. Detentions are now not concentrated on the border; they’re additionally going down throughout visitors stops, routine immigration appointments, and operations in communities and public areas.
At first, many Cubans believed that this rhetoric didn’t embody them. For a group accustomed for many years to distinctive therapy underneath U.S. immigration coverage, this shift threatens to overturn a number of deeply rooted assumptions. For the reason that starting of Donald Trump’s second time period, having relations in the US, having lived within the nation for years, or being concerned in an immigration course of now not ensures that an individual will stay past the attain of detention by ICE.
In any case, maybe essentially the most excessive expression of this coverage is going on removed from the US—and in addition very removed from Cuba. Washington has turned to agreements with third nations to deport migrants to nations with which they haven’t any earlier ties. African nations akin to Eswatini, Liberia, and Equatorial Guinea are among the many principal locations for these deportations.
In August 2026, a gaggle of deportees despatched by the US arrived in Liberia. Cubans had been amongst them. The migrants refused to get off the airplane, arguing that Liberia was not their nation and that they feared for his or her security. Authorities informed them they might be returned to the US. The airplane, nevertheless, finally ended up in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, the place they had been compelled to disembark. Reuters recognized three Cubans amongst them, whereas El Nuevo Herald later reported that 4 Cubans had been among the many group concerned within the switch.
The case is a part of a broader apply. Washington has signed agreements of this sort with a number of African nations, together with Eswatini—previously referred to as Swaziland—a small monarchy that has accepted migrants of different nationalities, together with Cuban residents. By the tip of August 2026, greater than 30 folks had been transferred to that nation underneath this mechanism.
The photographs converse for themselves. Individuals who left Cuba looking for safety or higher residing circumstances are being detained in the US after which despatched to an African nation the place they’ve by no means lived, haven’t any household networks, and, within the overwhelming majority of instances, don’t even converse the language.
Social media has full of testimonies from these folks or their relations asking for assist or denouncing human rights violations by the present US authorities.
Deportations are just one a part of the mechanism. Behind them is an enormous construction designed to hold out this coverage. Immigration amenities in poor circumstances, allegations of abuse, transfers of detainees between totally different states with out prior notification to them or their households, and authorized proceedings that may drag on for months are all a part of a system geared towards rising the variety of removals. For a lot of Cuban migrants, the uncertainty that after ended upon arrival in the US now continues even after they’ve crossed the nation’s border.
There’s additionally a serious contradiction inside the Cuban exile group itself. This coverage is being carried out underneath an administration by which Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants and present Secretary of State, holds one of the crucial highly effective positions. In Florida, Cuban-American members of Congress akin to Mario Díaz-Balart and Carlos Gimenez proceed to completely help Trump and far of his agenda, whereas focusing a lot of their public discourse on tightening sanctions and rising strain on the Cuban authorities.
Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar has very timidly questioned features of immigration coverage and has known as for cover for Cubans with I-220A kinds who haven’t any prison data. However it’s nonetheless hypocritical for a part of the Cuban-American political illustration to denounce each arbitrary arrest in Cuba with great depth whereas that very same vitality is nearly nowhere to be seen when Cubans are detained by ICE, held in poor circumstances, or despatched to 3rd nations. One thing comparable happens inside a part of the Cuban media and from influencers in the US. Though deportations obtain protection, a story centered on “criminals” steadily predominates, whereas the impression of those measures on folks with out prison data who emigrated looking for higher residing circumstances is pushed into the background.
Brazil affords a really totally different image
A Cuban citizen who’s in or arrives in Brazilian territory can apply for recognition as a refugee by Sisconare, the Brazilian authorities’s digital system for registering and processing these purposes. The applying can then be formalized with the Federal Police. Making use of for refugee standing and being acknowledged as a refugee are two various things. It’s as much as the Nationwide Committee for Refugees (Conare) to investigate every case. Whereas the applying is underneath overview, the applicant can stay legally within the nation and procure paperwork akin to a Cadastro de Pessoa Física (CPF) tax identification quantity and a piece card, in addition to entry rights and providers offered underneath Brazilian legislation.
Migrants may transfer freely all through the nation and entry public providers. Brazil’s Ministry of Justice itself acknowledges the precise of asylum seekers and refugees to healthcare, schooling, social help, and free authorized assist. Entry to the Unified Well being System and public schooling doesn’t rely upon Conare having already determined to acknowledge that particular person as a refugee.
That is extraordinarily vital. It signifies that an individual can arrive within the nation, request safety, get hold of documentation, and dwell like every other Brazilian citizen whereas ready for the federal government’s response. And Cubans are making broad and in depth use of this avenue.
In 2025, Brazil obtained 75,599 purposes for recognition of refugee standing. Of those, 41,919 had been submitted by Cubans. They represented 55.4% of the overall, and for the primary time Cuba surpassed Venezuela because the main nationality amongst these looking for refuge within the nation. The variety of Cuban purposes elevated by 88.1% in contrast with the earlier yr.
The 2026 information verify that the phenomenon is continuous. This yr, Cubans and Venezuelans as soon as once more ranked among the many main nationalities looking for safety in Brazil. In response to the Observatory of Worldwide Migration, Cubans consolidated their place because the nationwide group submitting the most important variety of asylum purposes within the nation. It’s estimated that greater than 100,000 Cubans are already in Brazil with varied kinds of immigration standing. Many are even leaving the US and flying on to the South American big.
The route, nevertheless, isn’t with out hazard. In June, Brazilian police rescued 108 Cuban migrants in Roraima, on the border with Guyana, after they’d crossed the northern border underneath precarious circumstances. 5 suspected human traffickers had been additionally arrested. Following the operation, the Cubans had been referred for immigration regularization procedures and help providers.
It is very important make clear that there is no such thing as a must cross illegally into Brazil. Any migrant can arrive at a border checkpoint and request asylum from the Federal Police. They won’t be deported.
In different phrases, when confronted with an undocumented or susceptible migrant, Brazil’s first strategy is regularization. In the US, amid the present immigration crackdown, even an individual who entered legally by packages akin to humanitarian parole might face detention and removing to a different continent.
That mentioned, this doesn’t imply that getting Brazilian documentation is a panacea.
Integration might be the place Brazil nonetheless has a substantial debt to pay. The appropriate to work exists on paper, however discovering formal, well-paid employment may be harder. College levels earned in Cuba should endure recognition procedures that may be prolonged, costly, and bureaucratic. Professionals skilled as medical doctors, engineers, academics, or journalists can spend years working in jobs utterly unrelated to their {qualifications}.
Portuguese is one other barrier. Though Spanish and Portuguese share many similarities, going through a job interview, pursuing college research, or looking for expert employment requires a command of the language that can not be acquired instantly upon arrival within the nation.
Brazil ought to develop broader Portuguese-language packages for immigrants which can be immediately linked to employment integration. It may additionally create quicker and cheaper mechanisms for recognizing skilled abilities and levels. As well as, it will be helpful to strengthen connections between asylum seekers and firms that want employees, provide particular steerage for entrepreneurs, and higher incorporate municipalities and states into integration insurance policies.
Cuban migration has traits that make it doable to think about extra particular insurance policies. There are certified professionals with expertise in providers, healthcare, schooling, tourism, and different fields. Cuban communities are rising in varied Brazilian states, and this inhabitants may combine extra efficiently if the federal government moved past merely guaranteeing documentation and in addition helped facilitate social mobility.
The case of the Federal College of Paraná, in Curitiba, is proving to be a profitable mannequin on this regard. There, a number of Cuban and Latin American professionals are capable of get hold of a Brazilian college diploma by credential-recognition procedures provided by the establishment. That is an instance that needs to be replicated in each state within the nation.
Some difficulties going through Brazil
Brazil has sufficient issues of its personal to stop any idealization. It has excessive inequality, casual employment, racism, xenophobia, and a forms able to turning a easy process into months of ready. Asylum additionally doesn’t in itself assure financial stability or definitive recognition of refugee standing. Nonetheless, whereas the US intensifies immigration detentions and resorts to 3rd nations to deport Cuban residents, Brazil permits hundreds of them to request safety and stay legally in its territory whereas their instances are evaluated. And that distinction says an excellent deal about how the 2 nations perceive the safety of migrants, a lot of whom are fleeing a context of profound disaster that makes it virtually unattainable to construct a dignified life.
One nation locations these it says it “desires to save lots of” inside a equipment more and more geared towards mistreatment and expulsion. The opposite nonetheless faces critical shortcomings by way of integration, however offers them with paperwork, authorizes their entry to the labor market, and acknowledges their human rights from the very starting of the method. And to date, this has not trusted whether or not the federal government is on the precise or the left; it’s a state coverage. Even underneath the earlier authorities, which was on the far proper, Cubans and different migrants discovered circumstances in Brazil that allowed for reception and regularization.
For many who are already constructing their lives exterior Cuba, or contemplating the potential for emigrating, this distinction is value bearing in mind.
They’ll select between a vacation spot the place arrival might imply a detention middle and one other the place it begins with documentation, entry to employment, and rights acknowledged from the outset.
Every little thing appears to point that, ultimately, our north is changing into the south.
Not less than for some time.
First printed in Spanish by Joven Cuba and translated and posted in English by Havana Occasions.
