The academic and former president of Florida International University (FIU) Modesto Maidique harshly questioned the deportations of Cubans prompted by the Trump administration and warned that this policy could cost votes in the November elections if the issue of Cuba is not resolved before the elections.
"Cubans are not starving people who came here to try to find a job. We are refugees from a failed system, a disastrous system, an ideological system," Maidique stated in an interview given this Wednesday to CiberCuba.
The Cuban-American scholar directly pointed out the contradiction he sees in Trump's immigration policy: "How can you go about expelling Cubans from the United States?" he said.
Maidique argued that the Cuban community not only fled material misery but also an ideological project that destroyed a country, and that their contribution to the United States has been tangible: "In gratitude to the United States, we have created one of the great cities," he said, referring to Miami.
Regarding Trump's electoral prospects, Maidique was categorical: "I believe so [that immigration policies could backfire on him in November]. I think he doesn't have a very consistent or clear policy and tends to mix some of his conservative values."
On the other hand, to illustrate the failure of Cuban socialism, Maidique proposed a comparative exercise that he described as a "macabre experiment": taking an island—because "what you have at the border are fish"—and observing what happens when socialism is applied for decades.
"If you were to conduct an experiment, let's test the disaster that is socialism... I would do it in a place like Cuba. A diverse population, a reasonable size, an island," he noted.
The contrast proposed by Maidique was with Singapore, another island that in the mid-20th century was considered a poor port. "We Cubans looked at them as poor Chinese when we were wealthy. Nowadays, what a difference!" he exclaimed.
According to Maidique, Singapore's success can be attributed to "good management, a leader committed to the future of his people, not to his personal wealth or power, and a commitment to the global market, not the local one." He also mentioned Taiwan as another island example that allows for a clear contrast of political systems by eliminating the variable of shared land borders.
Cuba is facing its worst crisis since the Special Period of the 1990s: the population has fallen from approximately 11 million to around eight million residents due to massive emigration, the electrical system has collapsed multiple times in recent months, and Venezuela has stopped sending oil following the capture of Nicolás Maduro in January 2026.
Trump himself signed an executive order on January 29, 2026, imposing an energy blockade and labeling Cuba as a "failed state," the same term that Maidique uses to argue that Cubans deserve refugee status, not deportation.
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