Thousands of Cuban migrants deported from the United States have confronted violations of their rights and are presently in “a legal limbo” in Mexico, the place they’ve difficulties regularizing their state of affairs and even acquiring medical care, in accordance with a brand new report from Human Rights Watch.
The HRW report, printed Wednesday, is predicated on a assessment of deportation figures from January 2025 to March of this 12 months, in addition to interviews with authorities and deported migrants.
According to the report, for the reason that begin of President Donald Trump’s second time period, the US authorities has sought to extend its deportations and, to take action, has resorted to sending migrants to locations apart from their nations of origin.
Among these vacation spot nations, Mexico has obtained essentially the most migrants of assorted nationalities, with 12,977, adopted by Honduras, with 1,352, and Canada, with 1,066, the report says, based mostly on statistics obtained by way of the Freedom of Information Act.
Of the entire variety of migrants deported to Mexico, the biggest group consists of individuals from Cuba, with 4,353.
HRW says it interviewed 41 of these Cuban migrants, and that lots of them stated that they had lived in the US for many years and had been detained whereas attending their supervision appointments with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, at their properties, on their option to work or after ending jail sentences.
According to HRW, 35 of these interviewed stated they misplaced their inexperienced playing cards due to a conviction, largely for offenses similar to driving drunk, falsifying paperwork, or minor drug-related costs. Others had been convicted of extra critical offenses, similar to assault or weapons-related costs.
“The absence of deportation agreements with Cuba meant that these people could not be deported to their country of origin. Instead, they were allowed to continue their lives in the United States, and many came to believe they would never be deported,” the report says, including many had work permits and lived with their households.
The report notes the state of affairs modified from the beginning of Trump’s second time period, with the tightening of immigration coverage. Many Cubans started to be detained, primarily in Florida, the place, in accordance with HRW, they had been taken to facilities the place they had been held in “inhumane conditions” and had been prevented from exercising their proper to problem the order to be deported to a 3rd nation.
“The people interviewed for this report described inhumane conditions of detention in immigration detention centers in the United States that are part of a broader pattern that Human Rights Watch has documented since 2025,” the non-profit group stated.
NCS contacted each ICE and the Department of Homeland Security for touch upon the allegations in the report.
HRW cites for instance the case of Fermín, a 52-year-old Cuban who was in the Alligator Alcatraz detention middle in Florida, the place he stated there was contaminated water, uncooked meals, and lots of sick individuals. Previously, different human rights organizations have collected comparable testimonies.
The report says that 15 interviewees stated they skilled “episodes of verbal and physical violence, including beatings and prolonged periods of isolation, in different detention centers.”
One instance of this, it provides, was the case of Alejo, a 50-year-old Cuban who stated he was held in isolation for 2 weeks in a detention middle in El Paso, Texas. “I spent 15 days detained in the hole, a punishment cell, (where) you don’t see the sunlight,” he recounted in the report.
The Trump administration has repeatedly defended the operation of federal migrant detention facilities, arguing they supply sufficient situations and respect human rights.
According to the report, as soon as Cuban migrants are deported to Mexico, they arrive in cities on the nation’s southern border: Tapachula, in Chiapas state, and Villahermosa, in Tabasco state.
There, they face obstacles in regularizing their state of affairs as a result of they lack paperwork and belongings, HRW stated. Their predominant different is to change into asylum seekers, a gradual course of for which Mexican authorities have obtained a rising variety of purposes in current years.
HRW mentions the case of Emiliano, a 47-year-old Cuban who reported feeling trapped in Villahermosa, the place he stated he fears violence from felony teams in the realm.
Interviewees additionally stated they undergo from power diseases and wrestle to entry medical care or drugs as a result of they lack a CURP, an alphanumeric code that identifies residents in Mexico and which hospitals normally require for therapy.
“By not offering Cubans and other nationals of third countries effective access to asylum or alternative avenues for obtaining permanent residency, and by continuing to accept deportations, Mexico is in effect condemning them to an indefinite legal limbo,” the report states.
NCS has contacted each the Mexican National Migration Institute and the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance for remark.
The Cuban residents interviewed by HRW additionally stated they see little likelihood of receiving assist from their nation of beginning.
Miguel Ángel, 67, stated he was instructed by officers on the Cuban Consulate in Cancún that he wouldn’t be readmitted to Cuba as a result of “he had been out of the country for more than 40 years and was a deportee,” in accordance with the report.
NCS contacted the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs for remark.
The launch of the HRW report comes amid rising tensions between Washington and Havana.
Earlier this month the US authorities indicted 94-year-old former Cuban President Raúl Castro on federal costs relating to the downing of two civilian planes in 1996. Cuban leaders have condemned the transfer as seeking to justify US aggression towards the island.