Cubans lament end of American dream as Trump overhauls migration policy

By Anett Rios and Alien Fernandez

HAVANA (Reuters) - Naydin Hernandez stood on Havana's waterfront Malecon boulevard on Monday, in tears and praying after her dream of joining her daughter in the United States appeared to be over.

"God knows I miss her," said Hernandez of her 21-year-old daughter. "I want to see her." 

Hernandez had applied for entry under a "parole" program launched by Democratic former President Joe Biden that allowed migrants with a sponsor to temporarily reside and work in the United States.

But she said her hopes were surely dashed after the administration of Republican President Donald Trump confirmed on Friday that it would end the program and revoke the temporary legal status of 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans in the United States.

A draft Federal Register notice called the program ineffective and said it had pushed the bounds of legality. 

The announcement has sown confusion and heartbreak among many residents of the communist-run Caribbean island, suffering through an ongoing economic crisis and long accustomed to policies that favored their entry into the United States over other nationalities.

Upwards of 700,000 Cubans entered the U.S. during the four years of the Biden administration, according to Customs and Border Protection and Department of Homeland Security tallies. Of those, it is not clear how many enrolled in programs that provide another form of protection or legal status. But many such programs, including ones designed to facilitate a path to citizenship for Cubans, were frozen by the Trump administration in February and placed under review.

On Monday, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said the U.S. had tempted Cubans to migrate then turned them back, calling it an "act of cruel cynicism."

Havana resident Dario Mendez, a 20-year-old engineering student, said many he knew had "sacrificed everything" to migrate to the United States. 

Forcing them to return now, he said, would be unfair.

"Just when you thought they were getting ahead, they tell you, you might have to go back," Mendez said.

Cuba's deputy foreign minister told Reuters earlier this month that any increase in deportations to Cuba would need to be discussed with the island's government under agreements dating back decades.

In south Florida, home to a large Cuban American community, fears that recent arrivals could be deported prompted Republican U.S. Representative Maria Elvira Salazar to ask the Trump administration to reconsider, blaming Biden for putting those seeking to escape "failed communist regimes" in migratory limbo.

"Trump should recognize this reality and not punish them for Biden's errors," she said on Saturday on X.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Rodriguez's post.

(Reporting by Anett Rios and Alien Fernandez; editing by Dave Sherwood and Rosalba O'Brien)