The Cuban political opposition figure, Yeilis Torres Cruz, was intercepted in 2022 while attempting to reach the United States on a raft with others.
After being detained by U.S. authorities, she spent seven months at Guantánamo Naval Base while fighting to win her political asylum case.
Its story becomes relevant now that, by order of the Trump administration, Guantánamo could house up to 30,000 migrants.
A confinement under constant surveillance
Torres Cruz was the only one in her group of 17 rafters who was not returned to Cuba.
Her stay at the military base was marked by restricted movements and a feeling of being constantly watched.
“One felt like they were detained, like a prisoner, because they were always watching you”, he recounted in an interview with Univision.
The Cuban woman was detained in Guantánamo from December 2022 to July 2023.
“The experience in Guantánamo was not very pleasant. I spent just seven months there, but there are people who can stay for up to two years at the base”, noted the Cuban woman.
According to Yeilis, daily life in the detention center had many limitations.
“No one could leave the 'mug', as we called it, after seven in the evening. If you wanted to go to the store to buy something, you couldn't; you were already locked in,” he recalled.
In 2022, there were 21 migrants at the Base with her, of whom eight were Cuban and three were Haitian.
Finally, she was transferred to the United States due to a medical emergency and remained for four months at the Broward migrant detention center, where she ultimately won her asylum case. She currently lives in Ohio.
Torres Cruz supports the current Trump Administration's decision to send people with criminal records to Guantánamo.
Changes in immigration policy and uncertain fate for new detainees
However, what Torres experienced in 2022 could be very different -and less harsh- than what the migrants who are currently being sent to Guantánamo.
The immigration lawyer Mayron Gallardo recalls that “these individuals are now being removed from the United States due to having a criminal 'background', for belonging to terrorist groups, for being part of organized crime, and they are being sent to Guantánamo because their home countries are not accepting them.”
However, in recent hours, the Department of Homeland Security did not rule out the possibility of sending migrants there with no criminal history.
Meanwhile, a federal judge blocked the deportation of three Venezuelans detained in an ICE jail, preventing them from being transferred to the military base.
“With the habeas corpus rulings in federal court, he is arguing that the jurisdiction belongs to him; therefore, immigration cannot take away the jurisdiction of a federal judge,” detailed attorney Gallardo.
So far, two flights have arrived in Guantánamo with 10 and 13 migrants, respectively.
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