Related videos:
A group of Cubans detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) accepted deportation with the intention of returning to Havana, reuniting with their families, and closing a chapter marked by migratory uncertainty. However, the plane landed at Guantanamo Naval Base.
According to a report by The New York Times written by journalist Carol Rosenberg, dozens of Cubans have been stranded at the U.S. military facility since before Christmas, caught in a limbo that is as absurd as it is cruel.
Some of them didn't even know that Guantánamo was still an option within the U.S. immigration machinery. They believed that accepting deportation was the quickest way to leave the detention centers; they never imagined they would end up locked up in a facility long associated with terrorism detainees.
The men, around 50, aged between 20 and 50, were transferred from various detention centers in the United States, primarily from Louisiana. According to the New York newspaper, several believed they were heading to Havana until the plane landed in the eastern part of Cuba, but on the side controlled by Washington. By then, it was already too late.
Guantánamo did not bring them closer to freedom. On the contrary, Cuba maintains strict restrictions on flights from the base to the rest of the island, which forces U.S. authorities to transfer these Cubans again from Guantánamo back to U.S. territory before they can hand them over to Cuban authorities. A bureaucratic loop that has prolonged their detention for weeks.
Some of the Cubans were initially housed in barracks near the airstrip, after being assessed as low-risk individuals. However, The New York Times confirmed that, due to undisclosed technical issues, they all ended up concentrated in Camp 6, a prison that previously housed alleged members of Al Qaeda.
Since December, CiberCuba has received direct complaints from relatives claiming that their loved ones were taken "deceived," held incommunicado for days, and treated like criminals, even though most have no criminal records. In some cases, they had sought asylum or had work permits but chose to return to Cuba after years of waiting without resolution of their cases.
The testimonies gathered by family members and media outlets like Telemundo 51 speak of handcuffs, chains, rifles aimed at them as they disembark from the plane, and brief phone calls filled with fear. Some relatives even went to airports in Cuba, waiting for a flight that never arrived, returning home with the distress of not knowing where their loved ones were.
Meanwhile, the official silence has been almost absolute. The Department of Homeland Security has only stated that among those detained are individuals with serious criminal backgrounds, without providing evidence or details. The families categorically deny this.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which has challenged this policy, argues that many accepted deportation believing it was the end of their confinement, not the beginning of another, more uncertain one.
The case of Cubans trapped in Guantánamo also exposes the contradictions of a costly and inefficient operation. The administration of Donald Trump ordered in January 2025 to prepare the base to house up to 30,000 "criminal foreigners." One year later, barely around 780 migrants have passed through there, according to data compiled by The New York Times, with no evidence that the majority had a criminal history. The Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security have spent millions of dollars on a facility that has remained empty for long periods.
For Cuba, the situation is even more delicate. The regime has remained silent while limiting repatriation of deportees from the United States to just one flight per month. Washington has requested an increase in that number, but without success. Human rights organizations indicate that the severe economic crisis on the island, marked by blackouts and shortages, partly explains the refusal to accept more returnees.
Meanwhile, the Cubans held in Guantánamo have managed to occasionally communicate with family members in the United States, who in turn inform relatives on the island. In private groups, mothers, wives, and aunts share rumors, pray, and cling to faith as their only source of comfort.
"God knows where they are and takes care of them," wrote a woman from Cuba in one of those spaces. Those words encapsulate the human drama behind a migration policy that, for dozens of Cubans, turned the anticipated return home into a torment with no end in sight.
Filed under: