A Cuban family is experiencing moments of anguish over the possible deportation from the United States of Leslie Acosta Torres, the foster daughter of political prisoner Daniel Alfaro Fría, and mother of two young children.
According to reports from opponents and family members, Leslie is being held in an immigration center in Texas, awaiting a decision that could send her back to Cuba, where her life and that of her children would be at risk.
From the Guanajay prison, where he is serving a nine-year political sentence, Alfaro sent a desperate message through his wife, Amelie Torres Campos, urgently requesting help to prevent his deportation.
"He's desperate, he doesn't know what to do. He's afraid of what might happen to his daughter and his grandchildren if they are returned to Cuba," his wife stated in a video sent to CiberCuba.
A family marked by repression
Daniel Alfaro Fría is one of the many political prisoners in Cuba who have been jailed for protesting against the regime. Following his incarceration, his family has been subjected to constant harassment and surveillance by the authorities.
Her daughter, Leslie Acosta, fled the Island with her two young children after years of persecution.
According to her husband, Gabriel Pérez Ortega, the young woman had been a victim of threats and harassment from State Security due to her activism.
"My wife was a political prisoner. If she returns to Cuba, her life and freedom are at risk. She is with the two children, and we are desperate. We just want her to stay in the United States, because if she goes back, she won't survive," Pérez Ortega said in a video.
The opposition's outcry: "It would be an injustice to return her to Cuba."
The opposition leader José Daniel Ferrer, who was recently deported to the United States after more than four years in prison on the Island, also requested support for his family.
In a video posted on the YouTube account of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), it was warned that Leslie's situation is causing more suffering for Daniel Alfaro than the terrible conditions in which he is confined in a prison in Artemisa.
"We need to support this young woman and her two little ones to ensure justice is served, so they are not sent back to Cuba, where they could face harassment, persecution, and, in Leslie's case, even imprisonment," Ferrer warned.
"She was an activist in Cuba, she has evidence that she was harassed, pursued, molested, and threatened by the repressive forces. She has a credible fear that if she is returned, she may fall victim to the cruelty of the regime. And she has done everything possible to make her voice heard in the migrant detention center where she is located," he detailed.
The leader of UNPACU called on Cuban lawyers and human rights organizations in the United States to intervene immediately to stop the deportation. He also urged the Cuban community in exile to contact the detention center in Texas and demand that the young mother's case be heard.
Risk of deportation and political silence
The case of Leslie Acosta reignites the debate over the deportation of Cubans from the United States, particularly under more restrictive policies towards irregular migrants.
Despite many fleeing from political persecution, U.S. authorities do not always recognize the real danger they face when returned to the Island.
Human rights organizations remind us that the Cuban regime punishes with cruelty those it deems traitors or defectors.
The deportation of Leslie Acosta Torres and her children is a particularly symbolic case: her father is imprisoned for political reasons, and her family has been harassed for years by State Security.
In Cuba, there are no guarantees of protection or freedom for the families of dissidents, and reprisals often extend even to children.
While Alfaro continues his confinement in Guanajay, the lives of his daughter and grandchildren hang in the balance of a migration decision. Deportation would not merely be an administrative act; it would be a sentence of risk, fear, and persecution.
"It is very important that we stand in solidarity with Daniel Alfaro Fría, a hero in the fight for freedom and democracy for Cuba, who now needs our support in defending his daughter and grandchildren from being deported to Cuba. We owe it to Alfaro; we owe it to his family. He suffers in prison for all of us," concluded José Daniel Ferrer.
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