Deportation of Migrants on Parole is a Cruel Display of Cynicism: Cuba
A migrant being deported. March 2025. X/ @PersistenceTee
March 24, 2025 Hour: 11:18 am
The CHNV program no longer represents a ‘significant public benefit’, the Homeland Security Department argues.
On Monday, Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodriguez criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to revoke humanitarian parole, a migration permit that has allowed approximately 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans to temporarily reside and work in the United States.
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“The threat by anti-Cuban politicians to deport Cubans who have emigrated to the U.S. is an act of cruel cynicism,” he said, refering to the program called Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela (CHNV).
Rodriguez emphasized that the White House’s decision affects Cubans who were pushed to migrate due to the U.S. economic blockade and later encouraged by the U.S. government to lie upon arrival at the border in order to be protected as refugees.
The CHNV program will expire on April 24. By then, all those who had benefited from the humanitarian parole must have left the United States, as they would otherwise be considered irregular migrants.
The Department of Homeland Security argues that the CHNV program “no longer represents a significant public benefit” for the U.S. and that it is “incompatible with the foreign policy objectives” of the Trump administration.
Created during Joe Biden’s administration (2021-2025), humanitarian parole allowed migrants from certain countries to temporarily reside and work in the United States. To qualify for the program, they needed sponsorship from a resident.
Biden launched the initiative for Venezuelans in 2022 and extended it to Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans in 2023. These decisions were part of his strategy to curb irregular migration to the U.S. while imposing asylum restrictions at the border with Mexico.
According to the latest data from the Department of Homeland Security, approximately 110,000 people from Cuba, 210,000 from Haiti, 93,000 from Nicaragua, and 117,000 from Venezuela entered the U.S. territory under this program.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE
