Cuban exiles were shielded from deportation. Now Trump is cracking down

Cuban exiles were shielded from deportation. Now Trump is cracking down


On Tuesday, Heidy Sanchez was detained at a scheduled check-in appointment with ICE in Tampa and by Thursday, she was back in Cuba.

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Some pleased among Trump fans, others worried
While President Donald Trump’s mass deportation pledge has frightened migrants from many nations, it has come as something of a shock to the 2.4 million Cuban-Americans, who strongly backed the Republican twice and have long enjoyed a place of privilege in the U.S. immigration system.

Support for Trump among likely Cuban-American voters in Miami was at an all-time high on the eve of last year’s election, according to a poll by Florida International University, which has been tracking the Cuban-American community since 1991. Trump rarely mentions Cubans in his attacks on migrant targets including Venezuelans and Haitians. That has given many Cubans hope that they will remain immune to immigration enforcement actions.
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Most of the aging exiles applauded Trump’s migration crackdown overhaul but there were a few cracks in the GOP armor. As the late afternoon banter switched between talk of CIA plots to assassinate Castro and President John F. Kennedy’s failure to provide air cover during the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, one retiree stood up and quietly stepped away from his friends.

“People are trembling,” Tony Freitas, who came to the U.S. from Cuba in the 1980 Mariel boatlift, said in a hushed voice. “For any little thing, you could be deported.”

https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/cuban-exiles-were-shielded-from-deportation-now-trump-is-cracking-down/3622705/