{"id":61465,"date":"2026-01-13T10:00:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T16:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.publicbooks.org\/?p=61465"},"modified":"2026-01-16T20:10:01","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T02:10:01","slug":"will-cuban-americans-choose-trumpism-or-solidarity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.publicbooks.org\/will-cuban-americans-choose-trumpism-or-solidarity\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Cuban Americans Choose Trumpism, or Solidarity?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When Boston University sociologist Susan Eckstein made plans to present her latest book in Miami in late 2022, she and her hosts at Florida International University were not expecting a public scandal. <em>Cuban Privilege<\/em> explored the comparative advantages Cubans fleeing communism had traditionally enjoyed under US immigration law.<sup id=\"ref-1\"><a href=\"#fn-1\" class=\"legacy-ref\">1<\/a><\/sup> For most US migration scholars, the monograph did not advance groundbreaking arguments; it offered a fresh, meticulously documented portrait of a widely established fact.<\/p>\n<p>Locally, however, the mere announcement of Eckstein\u2019s talk touched a nerve. At the time, Cuba had entered its worst crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union: the product of the pandemic, \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d US sanctions held over from the first Trump administration, and stubborn internal resistance to liberalizing reform. That crisis had fueled unprecedented civic discontent, culminating in island-wide protests in July 2021 and a subsequent exodus: 250,000 in about a year.<sup id=\"ref-2\"><a href=\"#fn-2\" class=\"legacy-ref\">2<\/a><\/sup> Some of Eckstein\u2019s Miami critics focused on defending their parents\u2019 legacies as anti-communist exiles and refugees that were <em>deserving<\/em> of admission into the United States. Others expressed concern for new Cuban migrant families that the Biden administration was permitting to cross the southern border with only indeterminate legal statuses.<\/p>\n<p>Needless to say, few actually read Eckstein\u2019s work. In fact, <em>Cuban Privilege<\/em> acknowledged that Cubans had found it more difficult to access immigration benefits in the United States over the last decade. Regardless, to label the Cuban experience \u201cprivilege\u201d\u2014at a moment when so many were undertaking harrowing journeys to the US-Mexico border\u2014understandably struck many in South Florida as the epitome of liberal insensitivity. Local officials and self-anointed Cuban exile leaders demanded an opposing perspective be added to the event, or that it be canceled outright. These same voices, not surprisingly, were also supporters of Donald Trump\u2019s tough talk against Cuba\u2019s communist government and already lining up behind his reelection campaign.<\/p>\n<p>What a difference three years makes. Today, Trump is back in office and Cuba\u2019s crisis has gotten worse. So has the exodus, which now stands at over a million. By January 2025, 850,000 came just to the United States, making this the largest cumulative out-migration in the island\u2019s history, both in absolute numbers and as a percent of the population: around 13 percent.<sup id=\"ref-3\"><a href=\"#fn-3\" class=\"legacy-ref\">3<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>And yet, since returning to the White House after a decisive 2024 election victory, the MAGA movement has not only further closed legal Cuban migration channels, but also aggressively pursued migrants from the recent exodus for detention and deportation. All the while, Cuban Americans who called for picketing Eckstein\u2019s 2022 presentation because of her alleged bias against Cuban exiles have been conspicuously quiet.<\/p>\n<p>Put another way, those most offended by the notion that Cubans possess \u201cprivilege\u201d\u2014those most insistent that Cubans had a moral right to seek refuge in the United States\u2014have had little to say as the second Trump administration tries to bury Cubans\u2019 access to the American dream for good. Now, in the wake of the administration\u2019s dramatic capture of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, a close Cuban government ally, more Cuban Americans also seem to be implying that the role of Cubans on the island is to stay and fight, especially if Havana might be Washington\u2019s next target.<sup id=\"ref-4\"><a href=\"#fn-4\" class=\"legacy-ref\">4<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>In part, this thinking reflects a double standard and instrumental logic from an immigrant group that has tied its political fortunes to both the most anti-immigrant president in modern US history and one who has explicitly revived Monroe Doctrine\u2013style pretensions of getting his way in the Western Hemisphere. But whatever the mind meld among most Cuban Americans in South Florida on foreign policy, bonds within the community have become more fragile due to differences over immigration affairs. Faced with a choice between Trumpism and migrant solidarity, Cuban America has marshaled, at best, an equivocal response. What will come next?<\/p>\n\n    <div class=\"wp-block-group pattern related-reading has-oat-background-color has-background has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40)\">\n\n        <div class=\"block-heading\">Related readings<\/div>\n\n        <div class=\"wp-block-columns wp-block-post gap-tight is-layout-flex wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n\n            <div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n                <figure class=\"wp-block-post-featured-image\">\n                  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicbooks.org\/the-basic-liberal-narrative-is-gone-immigrant-rights-and-abolition-with-silky-shah\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.publicbooks.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Silky_headshots_052923-61-1-1000x600.jpg\" class=\"attachment-feature_img_crop size-feature_img_crop wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>                <\/figure>\n            <\/div>\n\n            <div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n\n                <div class=\"taxonomy-category wp-block-post-terms\">\n                    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicbooks.org\/category\/interviews\/\" rel=\"tag\">Interviews<\/a>\n                <\/div>\n\n                <h5 class=\"h6 wp-block-post-title\">\n                    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicbooks.org\/the-basic-liberal-narrative-is-gone-immigrant-rights-and-abolition-with-silky-shah\/\" target=\"_self\">\u201cThe Basic Liberal Narrative Is Gone\u201d: Immigrant Rights and Abolition with Silky Shah<\/a>\n                <\/h5>\n\n                    <div class=\"pb-author-block\">\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicbooks.org\/author\/amna-a-akbar\/\" class=\"pb-author-name\">\n          Amna A. Akbar        <\/a>\n      <\/div>\n    \n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n\n  \n<h4>How We Got Here<\/h4>\n<p class=\"nonindented\">When Cubans first began leaving the island in the early 1960s\u2014after the Cuban Revolution\u2019s turn to communism\u2014the United States famously opened its doors, influenced by the politics of the Cold War. Throughout the 1960s and \u201970s, US presidents leveraged the so-called parole authority granted to the executive branch under the Immigration and Nationality Act to award Cubans a de facto refugee status, quite different from the standard of individual persecution required by US refugee law today. Combined with support from the federally funded Cuban Refugee Program (1960\u20131973) and the Cuban Adjustment Act (CAA) of 1966, which allowed any Cuban legally admitted to the United States to claim permanent residency after two years (reduced to one in 1976), liberal immigration policies helped exiles from Castroism begin climbing the ladder to economic success and political influence as Cuban Americans.<sup id=\"ref-5\"><a href=\"#fn-5\" class=\"legacy-ref\">5<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>This open door first began narrowing during the 1980 Mariel Boatlift, when the Carter administration detained upward of 50,000 predominantly single, Black, and working-class Cuban migrants temporarily on military bases, and then deemed 3,000-plus excludable from entry permanently. It inched further closed when the rafter crisis of 1994 led the Clinton administration to implement the \u201cwet foot, dry foot\u201d policy. While still guaranteeing entry and a path to legal status to any Cuban who reached US shores, the United States now committed to turning back those interdicted at sea. It was Barack Obama, however, who nailed the open door shut, just days before Trump\u2019s first inauguration, when he ended guaranteed entry for \u201cdry feet\u201d arrivals completely. If the United States under Obama had made historic strides to normalize diplomatic relations with Havana, it stood to reason that Washington might also move to handle Cuban migrants more like migrants from other countries.<sup id=\"ref-6\"><a href=\"#fn-6\" class=\"legacy-ref\">6<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Ironically, this shift set the table for Trump to treat Cuban migrants in line with his restrictionist immigration priorities, even as he broke with Obama\u2019s normalization efforts with Cuba, cultivated conservative Cuban American voters, and reimposed harsh sanctions on the island\u2019s government and economy. As conditions on the island worsened in 2018 and 2019, and as consular services for legal migration ground to a halt after US diplomats reported mysterious \u201csonic attacks,\u201d Cubans reaching the US-Mexico border by tortuous land journeys through South and Central America now had to file difficult-to-prove asylum claims. For the first time, Cubans arriving at the border were subjected to expedited removal (often back to Mexico) and immigration detention.<sup id=\"ref-7\"><a href=\"#fn-7\" class=\"legacy-ref\">7<\/a><\/sup><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>Faced with a choice between Trumpism and migrant solidarity, Cuban America has marshaled, at best, an equivocal response. What will come next?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p><br \/>\nSuch challenges faded from view in 2020, as pandemic border closures and travel restrictions reduced migration. But Cuba was now in a full-blown economic emergency, with GDP declining 10 percent that year, as tourists from around the world stayed home. Island-wide protests on July 11, 2021, were repressed. As soon as Cuba reopened its borders several months later, the Cuban government\u2019s close ally Nicaragua announced a convenient visa waiver that let Cubans bypass the Dari\u00e9n Gap via a direct flight to Managua. A summer of discontent quickly turned into an unparalleled rush to the exits.<\/p>\n<h4>The Non-Crisis Crisis<\/h4>\n<p class=\"nonindented\">The Biden administration responded with a mix of generosity and improvisation. As Cubans joined Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, and Haitians among the top nationalities arriving at the southern border in 2022, authorities admitted them under a patchwork of statuses.<\/p>\n<p>The problem was that no clear logic determined who qualified for which. Thousands bypassed removal, detention, and formal asylum protocols to receive humanitarian parole: a limbo of \u201cwe\u2019ll figure out what to do with you later.\u201d Yet much like the original grants of \u201cparole\u201d in the 1960s, this counted as legal \u201centry,\u201d and thus set them on a path to permanent residency per the CAA. Thousands of others, however, were given I220A forms\u2014notices to appear in immigration court that did not count as legal \u201centry\u201d\u2014leaving their status unresolved.<\/p>\n<p>Facing political backlash nationally over surging border numbers, the Biden White House introduced a third pathway: \u201cadvanced humanitarian parole.\u201d Channeling carrot-and-stick logic, the administration made border entry more difficult, but allowed Venezuelans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Cubans to fly directly to the United States, if a family member or friend sponsored them. Marketed as \u201ctemporary\u201d relief, the parole was valid for two years.<\/p>\n<p>Even here, though, Cubans retained access to special immigration benefits. As another form of legal \u201centry,\u201d Biden\u2019s advanced parole program still made Cubans eligible for permanent status thanks to the CAA, whereas it did not for Venezuelans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans. More than 100,000 benefitted through 2024, while Cubans also were among the top nationalities continuing to enter via land using CBP One, a new asylum-appointment app.<sup id=\"ref-8\"><a href=\"#fn-8\" class=\"legacy-ref\">8<\/a><\/sup> Meanwhile, the administration slowly resumed consular services at its embassy in Havana for family reunification and other legal migration categories.<sup id=\"ref-9\"><a href=\"#fn-9\" class=\"legacy-ref\">9<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Oddly, this surging migration from Cuba\u2014and elsewhere\u2014generated only passing concern in Miami. The issue was certainly present in public conversation and media coverage. But aside from criticism of families renting mobile homes in their driveways to recent arrivals, local leaders\u2019 response to the historic numbers never matched the intensity or crisis framing that accompanied other Cuban mass migration events like the Mariel Boatlift or the rafter crisis of the 1990s.<sup id=\"ref-10\"><a href=\"#fn-10\" class=\"legacy-ref\">10<\/a><\/sup> With most arrivals entering through the US-Mexico border, it was as if Cuban Miami was expanding through a back door. Many Cubans were also settling in cheaper-rent cities like Louisville, Las Vegas, and Houston.<sup id=\"ref-11\"><a href=\"#fn-11\" class=\"legacy-ref\">11<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n    <div class=\"wp-block-group pattern related-reading has-oat-background-color has-background has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40)\">\n\n        <div class=\"block-heading\">Related readings<\/div>\n\n        <div class=\"wp-block-columns wp-block-post gap-tight is-layout-flex wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n\n            <div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n                <figure class=\"wp-block-post-featured-image\">\n                  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicbooks.org\/tracing-women-haitian-and-black-cuban-women-archivists\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.publicbooks.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/53079811279_19240462be_k-1000x600.jpg\" class=\"attachment-feature_img_crop size-feature_img_crop wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>                <\/figure>\n            <\/div>\n\n            <div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n\n                <div class=\"taxonomy-category wp-block-post-terms\">\n                    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicbooks.org\/category\/reviews\/\" rel=\"tag\">Reviews<\/a>\n                <\/div>\n\n                <h5 class=\"h6 wp-block-post-title\">\n                    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicbooks.org\/tracing-women-haitian-and-black-cuban-women-archivists\/\" target=\"_self\">Tracing Women: Haitian and Black Cuban Women Archivists<\/a>\n                <\/h5>\n\n                    <div class=\"pb-author-block\">\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicbooks.org\/author\/yveline-alexis\/\" class=\"pb-author-name\">\n          Yveline Alexis        <\/a>\n      <\/div>\n    \n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n\n  \n<p>Nor did debates in the run-up to the 2024 elections focus extensively on the uncertain fate of as many as 400,000 Cubans with I220As or other precarious statuses vulnerable to policy reversal. Some I220A holders organized to raise awareness of their circumstances, but nothing slowed the growing momentum behind Donald Trump\u2019s candidacy for reelection among Cuban Americans.<\/p>\n<p>If anything, a kind of collective disassociation set in. When Trump claimed that Biden had misused parole authority\u2014as with \u201cadvanced humanitarian parole\u201d\u2014 many Cubans reassured themselves: <em>Trump isn\u2019t talking about us. He\u2019ll target the criminals and the gangs for deportation. We still have the Cuban Adjustment Act. He owes Cuban Americans our votes.<\/em> Such thinking led families who had welcomed relatives under Biden-era programs to help deliver an outright Republican victory in Miami-Dade, the county\u2019s first in 36 years.<sup id=\"ref-12\"><a href=\"#fn-12\" class=\"legacy-ref\">12<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h4>The Dragnet and the Response<\/h4>\n<p class=\"nonindented\">Since then, many of these families have had a rude awakening. On his first day in office, Trump issued an executive order ending Biden\u2019s advanced humanitarian parole program. Within weeks, Cubans already in the United States with parole began receiving notices that their status was being revoked. Those who had been in the country long enough to claim permanent residency under the CAA could ignore directives to self-deport. But some 26,000 who had entered less than a year earlier were out of luck.<sup id=\"ref-13\"><a href=\"#fn-13\" class=\"legacy-ref\">13<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>At the same time, recent and not-so-recent Cuban migrants began being detained during routine check-ins with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or at immigration hearings. They included I220A holders from the post-2021 surge.<sup id=\"ref-14\"><a href=\"#fn-14\" class=\"legacy-ref\">14<\/a><\/sup> But authorities have also targeted migrants from years ago with pending deportation orders, due to criminal convictions or even minor criminal records now being used to justify the revocation of status.<\/p>\n<p>Cuba has long resisted the deportation of Cuban nationals with criminal records in the United States, and it is not prepared to accept tens of thousands of deportees. Over the course of 2025, though, Havana allowed twelve deportation flights, with nearly 1,500 on board.<sup id=\"ref-15\"><a href=\"#fn-15\" class=\"legacy-ref\">15<\/a><\/sup> Bilateral relations with Washington have sunk to a familiar nadir since Trump\u2019s return, yet Havana clearly has been hoping that limited cooperation might show anti-immigrant MAGA stalwarts the value of pragmatic ties. Meanwhile, Washington has been quietly sending others to third countries like Mexico or faraway Eswatini.<sup id=\"ref-16\"><a href=\"#fn-16\" class=\"legacy-ref\">16<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>These developments have generated significant outrage and anxiety in the Cuban community. An aerial photo of Cuban detainees spelling \u201cSOS\u201d in the yard at Miami-Dade County\u2019s notorious Krome Detention Center went viral.<sup id=\"ref-17\"><a href=\"#fn-17\" class=\"legacy-ref\">17<\/a><\/sup> So did the case of Heidy S\u00e1nchez, who was separated from her still-breastfeeding baby when she reported to an ICE check-in and deported within a day.<sup id=\"ref-18\"><a href=\"#fn-18\" class=\"legacy-ref\">18<\/a><\/sup> Legal migration has become next-to-impossible, too, after Trump listed Cuba as part of a partial travel ban in June, leading to the rejection of family reunification petitions years in the works.<sup id=\"ref-19\"><a href=\"#fn-19\" class=\"legacy-ref\">19<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>The most politically combustible cases, however, involve dissidents tied to recent protest movements on the island. Threatening them with deportation most directly undercuts Cuban Americans\u2019 traditional conceptions of the United States as a refuge from repression.<\/p>\n<p>Rapper \u201cEl Funky,\u201d coauthor of the popular protest anthem \u201c<em>Patria y Vida<\/em>\u201d that helped fuel the historic July 2021 protests on the island, saw his Cuban Adjustment Act claim initially denied over a past drug conviction in Cuba.<sup id=\"ref-20\"><a href=\"#fn-20\" class=\"legacy-ref\">20<\/a><\/sup> Oscar Casanella, a member of the dissident San Isidro Movement artist and intellectual collective, endured a seven-hour hearing but did not receive a definitive ruling on his asylum claim.<sup id=\"ref-21\"><a href=\"#fn-21\" class=\"legacy-ref\">21<\/a><\/sup> A former activist of the dissident group Ladies in White has one son jailed in Cuba for participation in the July 11 protests and another in US immigration detention.<sup id=\"ref-22\"><a href=\"#fn-22\" class=\"legacy-ref\">22<\/a><\/sup> Even the seven-year-old daughter of Cuba\u2019s most prominent dissident, Jos\u00e9 Daniel Ferrer, faces deportation and separation from her mother, who arrived in 2019.<sup id=\"ref-23\"><a href=\"#fn-23\" class=\"legacy-ref\">23<\/a><\/sup> Ironically, Ferrer himself was recently granted formal refugee status after the Cuban government released him from prison on the condition that he leave.<sup id=\"ref-24\"><a href=\"#fn-24\" class=\"legacy-ref\">24<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h4>Sympathy, to a Point<\/h4>\n<p class=\"nonindented\">This flurry of stories has put the Cuban American political class\u2014at the apex of its power with Marco Rubio as Secretary of State\u2014in a bind. Congresswoman Mar\u00eda Elvira Salazar has been the most outspoken. She has called for relief for Cubans with I220As, defended a path to adjustment for those who entered under Biden\u2019s parole program, and aided several high-profile dissident cases. She has also introduced her own more comprehensive\u2014if in many ways draconian\u2014immigration reform bill: the so-called Dignity Act.<sup id=\"ref-25\"><a href=\"#fn-25\" class=\"legacy-ref\">25<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Yet in trying to stay close to the Trump White House while advancing a more moderate line on migration, Salazar and other Cuban American Republicans are attempting to have it both ways. Echoing Trumpian rhetoric, Salazar accuses Biden of \u201cabus[ing]\u201d the parole program to \u201cindiscriminately\u201d allow too many migrants into the country \u201cwithout a plan for their future.\u201d At the same time, she claims to want solutions for the program\u2019s now vulnerable beneficiaries.<sup id=\"ref-26\"><a href=\"#fn-26\" class=\"legacy-ref\">26<\/a><\/sup> Getting publicly in Trump\u2019s crosshairs has rarely proven a winning strategy for Republicans pressing for concessions. But when Salazar and Cuban American congressional colleagues have had behind-the-scenes leverage\u2014such as during the tight vote on Trump\u2019s \u201cBig Beautiful Bill\u201d last spring\u2014they used it to temporarily get their way on US policy toward Venezuela, not migrant relief.<sup id=\"ref-27\"><a href=\"#fn-27\" class=\"legacy-ref\">27<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>For some constituents, Cuban American elected officials\u2019 verbal support for at-risk Cubans rings hollow. Billionaire ex-Republican donor Mike Fernandez has funded billboards across South Florida, accusing Rubio, Salazar, and Representatives Mario D\u00edaz-Balart and Carlos Gim\u00e9nez of betraying their immigrant heritage.<sup id=\"ref-28\"><a href=\"#fn-28\" class=\"legacy-ref\">28<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Still, in many corners of Cuban America, the dam of Trump support is holding, buoyed by the recent, spectacular, albeit still unfolding ouster of Maduro in Venezuela in early January. The hope is that knock-on effects for Cuba, which relied on Venezuelan oil, will finally bring the government in Havana to its knees.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, competing narratives about recent arrivals have eroded ethnic solidarities. For instance, influential right-wing influencers have taken to criticizing supposed \u201c<em>pan con bistec<\/em>\u201d (\u201csteak sandwich\u201d) recent arrivals\u2014that is, those who only care to enjoy capitalism\u2019s bounty without taking a stand against the Cuban government.<sup id=\"ref-29\"><a href=\"#fn-29\" class=\"legacy-ref\">29<\/a><\/sup> Naturally, few of these influencers ever took much of a stand themselves when still living in Cuba or in their early years in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Some Cuban exile groups and elected representatives have also been circulating lists of alleged Cuban security officials, human rights abusers, or regime-connected elites admitted under parole programs, echoing Trump\u2019s charge that Biden flooded the nation with criminals. Their concern is not without basis. But the McCarthyite form these campaigns have taken\u2014and the fact that Trump\u2019s law enforcement agencies are acting on such tips\u2014fuels an uglier debate over which Cuban migrants are most worthy.<sup id=\"ref-30\"><a href=\"#fn-30\" class=\"legacy-ref\">30<\/a><\/sup> It is hard not to see the campaign as a smokescreen for the administration\u2019s wider immigration crackdown, which many Cuban Americans might otherwise struggle to justify openly.<sup id=\"ref-31\"><a href=\"#fn-31\" class=\"legacy-ref\">31<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Parallel developments have struck at another sacred symbol of the Cuban American story: the Cuban Adjustment Act. In summer 2025, US customs officials began aggressively questioning Cubans with permanent residency\u2014including migrants from the past five years\u2014when they returned from trips to the island.<sup id=\"ref-32\"><a href=\"#fn-32\" class=\"legacy-ref\">32<\/a><\/sup> Such visits remain legal, and they serve as lifelines to families amid Cuba\u2019s dire humanitarian crisis. But officials have now implied that return trips violate the immigration benefits recent migrants received under the CAA, leading to a sharp drop in demand for flights.<sup id=\"ref-33\"><a href=\"#fn-33\" class=\"legacy-ref\">33<\/a><\/sup> For Cubans who claimed they had a credible fear of returning back to Cuba to gain admission at the border, detractors may have a point. Regardless of whether migrants pursue an asylum claim to a final ruling or avail themselves of other immigration pathways first, visiting the island after reporting a credible fear could be considered lying to an immigration official, which is grounds for the revocation of legal status. Yet for decades, Cubans have used the CAA as the most expeditious path to permanent residency, and in most cases (including under the recent advanced parole program), doing so has not required making a formal asylum claim or been interpreted as a bar to returning home.<\/p>\n<p>The difference is that today more Cuban American leaders are openly talking about ending purported \u201cabuses\u201d of the CAA, or abolishing it outright, as a corollary of sanctions maximalism and regime change.<sup id=\"ref-34\"><a href=\"#fn-34\" class=\"legacy-ref\">34<\/a><\/sup> That is, they believe maximum pressure on the island cannot bring about the collapse of the Cuban government as long as migration offers a safety valve for discontent, or a vehicle for remittances to bail out struggling families. By this, they imply that Cubans in Cuba should stay indefinitely and resist, even though they themselves or their parents did not.<sup id=\"ref-35\"><a href=\"#fn-35\" class=\"legacy-ref\">35<\/a><\/sup><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>those most offended by the notion that Cubans possess \u201cprivilege\u201d have had little to say as the second Trump administration tries to bury Cubans\u2019 access to the American dream for good.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p><br \/>\nWith the administration announcing in late November that it is pausing all remaining legal immigration filings available to Cubans (including asylum and adjustment of status under the CAA), as well as a post-facto review of <em>all<\/em> grants of asylum and permanent residency, proponents of such a migration lock-down appear to have gotten their wish.<sup id=\"ref-36\"><a href=\"#fn-36\" class=\"legacy-ref\">36<\/a><\/sup> And, again, with Maduro\u2019s removal prompting excited speculation about follow-on actions for Cuba, the ugly stakes of the intertwined foreign policy and immigration discussions have come into sharp relief. Reading between the lines of comments by influential nativists in Trump\u2019s orbit like Steven Miller, or even Trump himself, it is plausible they think one benefit of regime change in Cuba, like in Venezuela, would be to facilitate the greater removal of recent \u201cthird world\u201d migrants they distaste and believe the United States does not need.<sup id=\"ref-37\"><a href=\"#fn-37\" class=\"legacy-ref\">37<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h4>A Fraught Centennial<\/h4>\n<p class=\"nonindented\">Against this backdrop, it is painfully ironic that the city of Miami is celebrating the centennial of a structure ingrained in Cuban American memory as a site of refuge, openness, and migrant support. The so-called Freedom Tower on Biscayne Bay has had several lives over the past century. Most well-known was its turn as the Cuban Refugee Emergency Center, or <em>el refugio<\/em>: the headquarters of the federally funded Cold War program referenced earlier that disbursed roughly $2 billion in aid to help 400,000 exiles from Castro land on their feet in the 1960s and \u201970s.<sup id=\"ref-38\"><a href=\"#fn-38\" class=\"legacy-ref\">38<\/a><\/sup> Incidentally, that is the same number of Cubans in immigration-status limbo today.<\/p>\n<p>Owned by Miami-Dade College since 2005, the building recently reopened with moving new exhibitions, a \u201csymbol of opportunity\u201d and the dreams of \u201chundreds of thousands of Cubans [who] fled Cuba in search of refuge and freedom from political oppression and economic hardship,\u201d per a video in the opening gallery.<sup id=\"ref-39\"><a href=\"#fn-39\" class=\"legacy-ref\">39<\/a><\/sup> Are these not the same forces that drove so many Cubans and other Latin Americans to the United States recently? Can a monument to Miami\u2019s immigrant history ignore the fears and anxieties confronting Cuban and other migrants today? In their remarks at the official unveiling, not a single official or dignitary acknowledged these elephants in the room.<\/p>\n\n    <div class=\"wp-block-group pattern related-reading has-oat-background-color has-background has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40)\">\n\n        <div class=\"block-heading\">Related readings<\/div>\n\n        <div class=\"wp-block-columns wp-block-post gap-tight is-layout-flex wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n\n            <div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n                <figure class=\"wp-block-post-featured-image\">\n                  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicbooks.org\/imagining-intruders-to-imagine-a-nation\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.publicbooks.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/United_States_-_Mexico_Ocean_Border_Fence_15838118610-1000x600.jpg\" class=\"attachment-feature_img_crop size-feature_img_crop wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>                <\/figure>\n            <\/div>\n\n            <div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n\n                <div class=\"taxonomy-category wp-block-post-terms\">\n                    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicbooks.org\/category\/reviews\/\" rel=\"tag\">Reviews<\/a>\n                <\/div>\n\n                <h5 class=\"h6 wp-block-post-title\">\n                    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicbooks.org\/imagining-intruders-to-imagine-a-nation\/\" target=\"_self\">Imagining Intruders to Imagine a Nation<\/a>\n                <\/h5>\n\n                    <div class=\"pb-author-block\">\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicbooks.org\/author\/lilly-irani\/\" class=\"pb-author-name\">\n          Lilly Irani        <\/a>\n      <\/div>\n    \n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n\n  \n<p>Worse, two weeks later, Miami-Dade College\u2019s Board of Trustees\u2014composed largely of Cuban Americans\u2014quietly voted to transfer title for a parking lot across the street to the state of Florida. Florida\u2019s Attorney General then promptly announced that the land would be the site of a future Trump library and adjoining hotel. Valued at a minimum of $60 million and possibly tens of millions more, the prize of the downtown plot more than cancels out the $25 million state appropriation that helped fund the Freedom Tower\u2019s renovation, raising questions about a financial giveaway and influence peddling.<sup id=\"ref-40\"><a href=\"#fn-40\" class=\"legacy-ref\">40<\/a><\/sup> Activists were granted an injunction against the gift on procedural grounds. But after a rescheduled board vote with opportunity for public comment, the injunction was lifted, and the project is free to proceed.<sup id=\"ref-41\"><a href=\"#fn-41\" class=\"legacy-ref\">41<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>It may be ahistorical to refer to the Freedom Tower as the \u201cEllis Island of the South,\u201d as many Cuban Americans lovingly do. Ellis Island processed multiple immigrant groups and served as a detention facility; the Freedom Tower did not. Still, to see Miami erect a monument next door to a president who openly disdains most immigrants, especially those from Latin America, will be a tragedy. Just as sadly, an ostensible symbol of Cubans\u2019 flight from communism to democracy will be abutted by a shrine to a US president who still refuses to accept his 2020 election loss.<\/p>\n<p>One hopes the restored Freedom Tower can still serve as a call to action. It can offer a reminder of when Cubans were welcomed by a robust federal policy, as well as an implicit plea to a splintered community to recognize itself in the struggles of its newest arrivals. But given its future neighbor, the restored space could just as easily reinforce a belief in Cuban American exceptionalism, as if our migrant pasts bear little relation to so many Cuban and other migrants\u2019 needs for refuge and solidarity in the present. Returning to Eckstein, that may be the most enduring form of Cuban \u201cprivilege\u201d: not a benefit under immigration policy, but a founding segment of the community\u2019s belief in its own superiority.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, far from triumphalist talk of freedom and opportunity, thousands of recent Cuban arrivals\u2014from Homestead to Houston\u2014face legal uncertainties most of their predecessors avoided. This highlights the need for new paradigms in Cuban migration studies that pay closer attention to processes of exclusion, marginalization, and return. Over the summer, Secretary of State Marco Rubio went so far as to suggest that too many Cubans find it \u201ceasier\u201d to \u201cabandon\u201d the island than build its future, echoing the Cuban government\u2019s traditional equation of migration with betrayal.<sup id=\"ref-42\"><a href=\"#fn-42\" class=\"legacy-ref\">42<\/a><\/sup> But there is nothing \u201ceasy\u201d about being returned to a country that might be a future objective of the White House\u2019s revival of gunboat diplomacy\u2014and that, by most measures, is already falling apart.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-footnotes legacy-footnotes\"><ol><li id=\"fn-1\">Susan Eva Eckstein, <em>Cuban Privilege: The Making of Immigrant Inequality in America<\/em> (Cambridge University Press, 2022). <a href=\"#ref-1\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-2\">For a good summary, see Andr\u00e9s Pertierra, \u201cThe Cuban Exodus,\u201d <em>Dissent<\/em>, vol. 72, no. 2 (2025), pp. 29\u201336. <a href=\"#ref-2\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-3\">Yilena H\u00e9ctor Rodr\u00edguez and Alejandro Oswaldo Anzardo \u00c1lvarez, \u201cCuba en datos: \u2018La poblaci\u00f3n cubana envejece, decrece y se urbaniza,\u2019\u201d <em>Cubadebate<\/em>, June 12, 2025. Independent demographers estimate the decline may be even more dramatic; see Carla Gloria Colom\u00e9, \u201cFrom a Population of 11 Million to Little More than 8.5 Million: The Real Toll of Cuba\u2019s Migratory Crisis,\u201d <em>El Pa\u00eds<\/em>, July 23, 2024. <a href=\"#ref-3\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-4\">Maria Abi-Habib, \u201cAfter Venezuela, Trump Says Cuba is \u2018Ready to Fall,\u2019\u201d <em>New York Times<\/em>, January 5, 2026. <a href=\"#ref-4\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-5\">Mauricio Castro, <em>Only a Few Blocks to Cuba: Cold War Refugee Policy, the Cuban Diaspora, and the Transformations of Miami<\/em> (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024). <a href=\"#ref-5\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-6\">Eckstein, <em>Cuban Privilege<\/em>, pp. 74\u2013286. <a href=\"#ref-6\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-7\">Noah Lanard, \u201c\u2018This Country Is Worse than Cuba\u2019: The Trump Era\u2019s Cruel Reality for Cuban Asylum Seekers,\u201d <em>Mother Jones<\/em>, July 16, 2019. <a href=\"#ref-7\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-8\">US Customs and Border Protection, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbp.gov\/newsroom\/national-media-release\/cbp-releases-october-2024-monthly-update\">CBP Releases October 2024 Monthly Update<\/a><em>,\u201d <\/em>November 19, 2024. <a href=\"#ref-8\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-9\">Megan Janetsky, \u201cFacing Migration Flood, US Resumes Services at Cuba Embassy,\u201d <em>Associated Press<\/em>, January 4, 2023. <a href=\"#ref-9\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-10\">Lorena Incl\u00e1n, \u201c\u2018This is Deplorable Housing\u2019: Fight Continues over Illegal Mobile Home Rentals in Hialeah,\u201d <em>NBC News Miami<\/em>, January 10, 2024. <a href=\"#ref-10\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-11\">Miriam Jordan, \u201cThe New Little Havana: Why Cuban Migrants Are Moving to Kentucky,\u201d <em>New York Times<\/em>, August 26, 2023; Anna-Catherine Brigida, \u201cRecord Numbers of Cuban Immigrants Are Choosing to Make Houston Their Home,\u201d <em>Houston Landing<\/em>, December 28, 2023. <a href=\"#ref-11\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-12\">Joe Gorchow, \u201cMiami-Dade Republicans Basking in Red Wave,\u201d <em>CBS News<\/em>, November 6, 2024. <a href=\"#ref-12\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-13\">Carla Gloria Colom\u00e9, \u201cEstados Unidos entierra por primera vez el sue\u00f1o de una green card para 550.000 migrantes cubanos,\u201d <em>El Pa\u00eds<\/em>, April 1, 2025. <a href=\"#ref-13\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-14\">Syra Ortiz Blanes, \u201cCubans with I-220A Forms Are Suddenly Being Detained. Here\u2019s Why\u2014and What They Can Do,\u201d <em>Miami Herald,<\/em> March 21, 2025. <a href=\"#ref-14\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-15\">\u201cVuelo de cierre de a\u00f1o a la Habana: 128 cubanos deportados; record hist\u00f3rico de Trump asciende a 4,883,\u201d <em>Caf\u00e9 Fuerte<\/em>, December 19, 2025. <a href=\"#ref-15\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-16\">Clare Healy and Syra Ortiz-Blanes, \u201cCientos de cubanos residentes en el sur de Florida desde hace a\u00f1os est\u00e1n siendo deportados silenciosamente a M\u00e9xico,\u201d <em>El Nuevo Herald<\/em>, October 21, 2025. <a href=\"#ref-16\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-17\">Claire Healy and Syra Ortiz-Blanes, \u201cCuban Detainees Launch Protest at Krome Detention Center,\u201d <em>Miami Herald<\/em>, June 5, 2025. <a href=\"#ref-17\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-18\">Patrick Oppmann, \u201cDeported from Florida to Cuba, This Mom Saw Her 17-Month-Old Daughter\u2014and Her American Dream\u2014Ripped Away,\u201d <em>CNN<\/em>, May 5, 2025. <a href=\"#ref-18\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-19\">David Ovalle, \u201cTravel Ban Separates Cuban Families, Divides Community Loyal to Trump,\u201d <em>Washington Post<\/em>, October 19, 2025. <a href=\"#ref-19\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-20\">After an outcry, his case was reopened and eventually resolved. See \u201cRapero cubano El Funky obtiene la residencia en Estados Unidos tras apelaci\u00f3n,\u201d <em>Cubanet<\/em>, September 18, 2025. <a href=\"#ref-20\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-21\">Mayl\u00edn Lega\u00f1oa, \u201cTras m\u00e1s de 7 horas de juicio termina sin una decisi\u00f3n final el caso del opositor cubano Oscar Casanella,\u201d <em>Telemundo Miami<\/em>, June 24, 2025. <a href=\"#ref-21\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-22\">Carla Gloria Colom\u00e9, \u201cUn hijo secuestrado por el castrismo y otro por el trumpismo. La agon\u00eda de la dama de blanco Yaquel\u00edn Boni,\u201d <em>El Estornudo<\/em>, August 19, 2025. <a href=\"#ref-22\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-23\">Carla Gloria Colom\u00e9, \u201cDaniela Patricia, una ni\u00f1a cubana de siete a\u00f1os frente al laberinto de las cortes migratorias de Estados Unidos,\u201d<em> El Pa\u00eds<\/em>, April 17, 2025. <a href=\"#ref-23\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-24\">David Adams, \u201cCuban Dissident Leader Leaves Prison for Exile in the US,\u201d <em>New York Times<\/em>, October 13, 2025. <a href=\"#ref-24\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-25\">Jesus Mesa, \u201cCan a Lawmaker Be Fully MAGA and Still Push for Immigration Reform?,\u201d <em>Newsweek<\/em>, July 22, 2025. <a href=\"#ref-25\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-26\">Sherrilyn Cabrera and Helen Acevedo, \u201cMiami Congresswoman Wants \u2018Protection\u2019 for Migrants with Temporary Permits under Biden Program,\u201d <em>WLRN<\/em>, January 24, 2025; Adriana Gomez Licon, \u201c3 House Republicans from Florida with Cuban Roots Carefully Navigate Trump\u2019s Immigration Policies,\u201d <em>Associated Press<\/em>, April 26, 2025. <a href=\"#ref-26\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-27\">Marc Caputo, \u201cHow Trump Saved His Big Bill by Killing a Venezuela Oil Deal,\u201d <em>Axios<\/em>, May 23, 2025. The victory proved pyric, as the White House greenlit a slightly more restrictive license from Chevron to resume pumping oil in Venezuela in July. <a href=\"#ref-27\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-28\">Patricia Mazzei, \u201cThe Billionaire behind Mysterious Immigration Ads Targeting Miami Republicans,\u201d <em>New York Times<\/em>, August 3, 2025. <a href=\"#ref-28\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-29\">\u201c\u2018Cuban Bread with Steak\u2019: The Symbol of Double Standards in Miami,\u201d <em>Cibercuba Noticias<\/em>, October 24, 2025. <a href=\"#ref-29\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-30\">\u201cCarlos Gim\u00e9nez Will Deliver a New List of Repressors and Frontmen of the Cuban Regime to the DHS,\u201d <em>CiberCuba<\/em>, July 22, 2025; Eduardo \u201cYusnaby\u201d Rodr\u00edguez, \u201cExfuncionario cubano relacionado a los Castro es arrestado por ICE en Las Vegas,\u201d <em>Telemundo Miami<\/em>, July 22, 2025. <a href=\"#ref-30\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-31\">It is also reminiscent of how some Cuban Americans in 1980 expressed solidarity for relatives who migrated via the Mariel Boatlift but distanced themselves from the larger group when national and local media painted Mariel migrants with a criminalizing brush. See Alexander Stephens, \u201cMaking Migrants \u2018Criminal\u2019: The Mariel Boatlift, Miami, and US Immigration Policy in the 1980s,\u201d <em>Anthurium<\/em>, vol. 17, no. 2 (2021). <a href=\"#ref-31\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-32\">\u201cUna cubana con residencia denuncia maltrato en aeropuerto tras regresar de la isla,\u201d <em>Univision<\/em>, August 18, 2025. <a href=\"#ref-32\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-33\">\u201cAnother Blow to US-Cuba Flights: Southwest Reduces Operations between Tampa and Havana,\u201d <em>Cibercuba<\/em>, August 7, 2025. <a href=\"#ref-33\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-34\">Alberto Arego, \u201cLey de Ajuste Cubano: El debate c\u00edclico que genera miedo,\u201d <em>El Estornudo<\/em>, August 29, 2025. Rubio first began criticizing alleged \u201cabuses\u201d of CAA a decade ago. See Michael J. Bustamante, \u201cIs the Cuban Adjustment Act in Trouble?,\u201d <em>Cuban Counterpoints<\/em>, June 4, 2015. <a href=\"#ref-34\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-35\">See remarks by Mauricio Claver-Carone, former Special Envoy for Latin America, at Miami-Dade College in early 2025, summarized in Nora G\u00e1mez Torres, \u201cTrump Envoy Warns of \u2018Short-Term Pain\u2019 as Administration Cracks Down on Cuba, Venezuela,\u201d <em>Miami Herald<\/em>, April 3, 2025. Also see \u201cCongressman Carlos Gim\u00e9nez Calls for Cancellation of Flights and Remittances to Cuba,\u201d <em>OnCuba<\/em>, April 5, 2025. <a href=\"#ref-35\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-36\">Announced in response to the shooting of US National Guard members by an Afghan refugee in late November 2025, the measures are part of a deeper crackdown on and review of migrants from nineteen so-called \u201ccountries of concern\u201d included in the administration\u2019s June 2025 partial and complete travel bans. See Anna Faguy, \u201cTrump administration will re-examine green card holders from 19 countries,\u201d <em>BBC<\/em>, November 27, 2025; \u201cAdministraci\u00f3n Trump suspende procesos de asilo en medio de escalada contra inmigrantes,\u201d <em>Caf\u00e9 Fuerte<\/em>, November 28, 2025. <a href=\"#ref-36\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-37\">Reuters, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ezYNnFETXk0\">\u201cTrump Speaks After US Strikes Venezuela and Captures Maduro,\u201d<\/a> YouTube, January 3, 2026; CNN, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/01\/05\/politics\/video\/senior-white-house-aide-stephen-miller-says-us-military-threat-to-maintain-control-of-venezuela-digvid\">\u201cStephen Miller Says US is Using Military Threat to Maintain Control of Venezuela,\u201d<\/a> CNN.com, January 5, 2026. <a href=\"#ref-37\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-38\">Castro, <em>Only a Few Blocks to Cuba<\/em>, p. 4. <a href=\"#ref-38\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-39\">Full disclosure, I was a consultant on the project. <a href=\"#ref-39\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-40\">Patricia Mazzei, \u201cFlorida Hands over Prime Miami Property for Trump Library,\u201d <em>New York Times<\/em>, September 30, 2025. <a href=\"#ref-40\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-41\">Claire Heddles, \u201cMiami Judge Lifts Block on Trump Library Land Transfer, Tosses Sunshine Law Case,\u201d <em>Miami Herald<\/em>, December 18, 2025. <a href=\"#ref-41\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><li id=\"fn-42\">NoticiasCubanet Cuba, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=BWDA3DBXdo4\">Mensaje al pueblo cubano de Marco Rubio, Secretario de Estado de Estados Unidos<\/a>,\u201d YouTube, July 9, 2025. <a href=\"#ref-42\" aria-label=\"Back to content\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Voting overwhelmingly for Trump, Cuban Americans are now mostly silent as the new administration cracks down on all migrants, including Cubans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":61508,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1691,56,786,1302,174,28,784,290],"pbpartner":[],"section":[1467],"pbseries":[],"class_list":["post-61465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essays","tag-borderlands","tag-cuba","tag-deportation","tag-florida","tag-migration","tag-politics","tag-solidarity","tag-trump","section-borderlands"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Will Cuban Americans Choose Trumpism, or Solidarity? 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