A couple and their 13-year-old sondeported to Cuba on March 28 without prior notice and without the opportunity to contact their lawyer, they said they felt traumatized by having to return to the island from which they had managed to escape.
The young manDenis Pico, who lived in the state of North Carolina with his parents, toldMartí News feeling dismayed because “coming from there to a country that offers you many opportunities and then coming back to Cuba is very difficult.”
Guillermos Picos, the young man's father, explained that it has been a true ordeal for his son to have to give up the American dream, of joining the United States Army, and because "there he had his study plans, his friends, he is very Traumatized by this situation, arriving here in Cuba he had a birthmark under his arm, a sore in his mouth, another herpes on his foot, he gets up in the morning, he hardly sleeps.”
Belkys Rodriguez, the boy's mother, implored that her son's dream not be cut short and explained that they already had an organized life, and both she and her husband worked.
“From the moment they told us we were going to Miami until the plane, I cried a lot, and here I cry every day of my life,” he added.
For his part, the man reported that he asked four times to speak with his lawyer and they never let him, "they told me that when I arrived in Miami they were going to give me the right, but they never allowed me."
This family arrived in Cuba along with 58 other people deported from the United States, on a plane from Miami, on the third flight of this type so far this year.
Rodríguez said that even sitting on the plane she hoped that they would receive a call from someone who would get them out of that nightmare: "The three of us were not fit on that plane, there were people who had nothing to do with us."
Grisel Ybarra, a lawyer for this family, toldMartí News that there are precedents of similar cases where the decision can be reversed: “all they have to do is call the American consulate and say 'we have authorized three humanitarian paroles'.”
Ybarra began an appeal process before an immigration board, which is still ongoing, the aforementioned media reported.
The lawyer asked the congressmen and especially the senator for helpMarcos Rubio because he reiterated that this was a deportation of a Cuban family, including a child.
Both parents asked the United States government for justice, while young Pico told the presidentJoe Bidenwho just wants to return and continue studying.
This Cuban family arrived in the United States, through Arizona, in November 2021.
Their asylum request was not granted and they were grantedNotices to Appear, with a first hearing scheduled in the Immigration Court of the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, on February 16, 2023.
The bad luck is that theImmigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) scheduled an interview for the family on the same day of their court hearing, that is, for February 16, 2023.
They chose to attend the ICE interview first but arrived two hours late to court, which determined that they were deported in absentia.
The family's lawyer, Grisel Ybarra, presented aMotion to Reopen before the Immigration Judge, arguing the error in scheduling the interview.
However, the motion was denied, leading to a pending appeal beforethe Board of Immigration Appeals, a process that was ongoing.
Despite this, on March 18 of this year they received a notification to appear before ICE on Wednesday, the 27th of the same month, the day on which, without prior notice,were mounted by a deportation officer on a flight to Miami.
Last February,51 Cuban migrants were repatriated by flight from the US.
The group of immigrants was made up of 46 men and five women who tried to enter the United States through non-legal means.
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