Cuba Expects To Resume US Deportation Flights This Month

BETHESDA, Maryland – A Cuban official indicated this month that the country would resume accepting deportation flights from the United States, reflecting US fears about the largest levels of Cuban migration in six decades.

Cuba’s deputy foreign minister, Carlos Fernandez de Cossio, said flights are expected before the United States lifts coronavirus pandemic-related asylum limitations on May 11, widely expected to boost the number of persons seeking admission into the United States at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The diplomat talked to The Associated Press at the Cuban ambassador’s residence outside Washington following what he called a “productive meeting” with US Department of Homeland Security officials to discuss migration.

“We have a lot of common understanding, both parties, the United States and Cuba, about the nature of the problem,” he said.

According to Fernandez de Cossio, there has yet to be an agreement on flying frequency, which we and Cuban capacity will determine. However, he believes there is no reason they cannot return to pre-pandemic levels around twice a month. The final flight was scheduled for December 2020.

A request for comment from the Department of Homeland Security was not immediately returned on Friday.

Cubans were detained approximately 43,000 times at the US-Mexico border in December Deportation, making them one of the most numerous nations entering the US. In January, President Joe Biden’s administration announced that Cubans might travel to the United States if they filed online and had a financial sponsor, but that if they crossed the border illegally, they would be returned to Mexico.

“We’re going to see if we can get one in the coming weeks Deportation, and then we’re going to make that regular so that people can be easily removed, not to Mexico, but directly to Cuba,” Fernandez de Cossio said late Thursday.

He said that after a fall earlier this year, the number of Cubans fleeing on boats, particularly high-powered vessels associated with smugglers, had increased and that more Cubans were leaving the country to fly to Nicaragua as tourists, which is typically the first step for Cubans to travel by land to the US-Mexico border.

Fernandez de Cassio stated that the January amendments that allowed people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to apply for humanitarian parole to come to the United States were beneficial in reducing the number of Cubans attempting to cross the US-Mexico border. However, he stressed that it was a short-term solution.

“It would be irresponsible or naive for us to believe that this will be sustainable in the long run because there will always be a limit on the number of visas Deportation,” he said.

How many planes the United States will require to act as a substantial disincentive to Cuban Deportation is still being determined.

Since November, the two countries have scheduled five removal flights, but each has been canceled due to various operational challenges, according to Fernandez de Cossio, who emphasizes that Cuba has supported the flights in theory.

Last year, Border Patrol personnel halted more migrants than at any other time in history, owing partly to landings from Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, all of which have strained diplomatic relations with the United States. The United States has found it incredibly difficult to fund deportation flights to those countries, requiring the Biden administration to resort to Mexico for assistance in hosting the migrants.

The Biden administration has gone into overdrive in preparation for the repeal of Title 42, the public health authority under which migrants have been deported from the United States more than 2.7 million times without the right to seek asylum in the name of preventing the spread of COVID-19.

This Monday, the United States, Panama, and Colombia unveiled a plan to halt migration through Panama’s dangerous Darien Gap, where people are frequently killed. Deportation It has also begun trying faster initial screening for asylum at an unnamed border crossing, hoping to promptly return those who do not pass.

During negotiations in Washington, Fernandez de Cossio claimed he advocated for modifications to the Cuban Adjustment Act, which allows Cubans to apply for legal status after one year in the United States.

SOURCE – (AP)