The news about the humanitarian parole, a program that allows for regular immigration to the United States, remains contradictory. Now, several Cubans have reported from Brazil the impossibility of traveling to the northern nation because airlines are preventing them from boarding flights.
"At São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport, they don't let us travel with that document. In our USCIS accounts, the permits [for travel] remain active, but what they tell us is that the program is on hold," said Yailin Herrero to Martí Noticias.
She and her husband, Dennis Cabrera, have had their travel permit approved since June 25. However, they reported that when they provided the documentation to an employee of the airline Latam, with which they had purchased the tickets, they were told that they could not board after the information was sent to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office (CBP).
"We asked Delta and American Airlines and they tell us the same thing," Herrero pointed out.
Like them, there are other Cubans in the limbo of waiting after the pause placed on the humanitarian parole program by the Joe Biden administration, due to fraud committed in the presentation of information.
The mentioned media cites the story of Mayley González, another Cuban who tried to leave through the same Brazilian airport with her husband, Armando Elías.
"This is sad, the Cubans who are waiting in other countries have achieved this with a lot of effort and sacrifice. We are apart from our families, who mostly live in the United States. Our future is at stake," he commented.
Their trip was scheduled with the airline American Airlines, but they encountered a refusal at the time of boarding.
"They take a photo of the passport and the permits and send them somewhere, supposedly to U.S. immigration, and then they come and tell us that we cannot board," they report.
They add that they lost time and resources because "the airport in Sao Paulo is more than 14 hours away from where we are staying. We don't know what to do anymore."
Last week, a report by the Telemundo network confirmed at the terminal of Miami International Airport that many Cubans managed to enter the country with their active travel permits.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that some travel permits had been revoked as part of its review of the program and the detection of fraud in thousands of applications; but that the cases are still being processed.
U.S. authorities have said they are working with stakeholders, including airlines and sponsors, to resolve the issues that have arisen as quickly as possible, and will continue to provide updates.
At the time, American Airlines stated that it "continues to comply with the Administration's Travel Authorization Program, supporting customers entering the United States as part of this program."
On August 2, the U.S. government temporarily froze travel permits for beneficiaries of the humanitarian parole program following an internal report that revealed significant levels of fraud, according to Fox News citing a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The government source indicated that "as a precaution" they have suspended the issuance of advance travel authorizations for the program since mid-July, while they proceed to review in detail the applications from sponsors, which is where the focus of fraud is placed.
Some of the reasons for the temporary suspension were revealed in an internal report from the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate of the Citizenship and Immigration Service of that country.
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