More than 35,000 Cuban immigrants who have been issued with deportation orders could be sent back to the Caribbean island as the result of renewed relations between Cuba and the United States, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) claims. 35,106 Cubans currently in the United States have been issued with deportation orders, with the great majority – 34,944 – still at liberty, according to ICE data.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has told EFE that Cuba’s policy up until recently has been to accept only occasional repatriations, which are often in criminal cases; however, with the new understanding constructed between the two nations and diplomatic ties re-established, this is something that could now soon change.
John Kerry, the secretary of state for the United States, will today receive Bruno Rodriguez, the foreign minister of Cuba, marking the first time in over 50 years that the State Department has been visited by a foreign minister from the country. The two will later participate in a joint press conference.
One of the few cases to stand out in the intervening years, ICE says, is the incident in which a specific list of Cubans, which was agreed in 1984 by the governments of the respective countries and included 2,746 citizens of Cuba, were repatriated back to their home country. Most of those involved had come to the United States via the Cuban port of Mariel and almost 2,000 have already been sent back.