The Cuban content creator Marcos Barrera Martorell published a video on Instagram in which he states that the main enemy of Cubans in the United States is not the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), but rather other Latinos.
The reel, recorded from inside a vehicle and accompanied by the message "I had to say it," has amassed nearly 50,000 views, over 4,000 "likes," and hundreds of comments, becoming a new point of discussion about the internal tensions within the Hispanic community in the country.
The post sparked a flood of reactions and comments that ranged from joking to serious, highlighting certain nationalities as the most controversial in the United States when it comes to reporting a potential illegal immigrant.
Several followers shared specific experiences of discrimination from other Latinos. One user recounted how, after it became known at her workplace that she was Cuban, her colleagues began to interrogate her: "Do you receive food stamps? Do you have residency already?"
According to her: "Being Cuban and having benefits was enough for everyone to turn against me, and they didn't stop until they got me out."
This perception of envy or resentment from Latin communities towards Cubans in the United States has structural roots.
The Cuban Adjustment Act and other immigration protection mechanisms have historically granted newcomers from the island advantages such as expedited residency and access to social assistance programs, creating tension with other migrant groups that do not have those protections.
The debate is not new. In March 2025, another Cuban influencer stirred controversy by stating that "a Cuban was born to progress and a Mexican was born to watch how a Cuban progresses," remarks that were publicly challenged by influencer Carlos Eduardo Espina.
In July 2025, Cuban YouTuber Yander Serra lashed out at established Cubans in the U.S. who support the deportation of newcomers, calling them "the worst scum", highlighting that divisions also exist within the Cuban community itself.
Marcos Barrera Martorell is no stranger to this type of reflective content with a humorous touch. In October 2024, he published a viral video in which he joked about the reasons not to return to Cuba, with the phrase that became popular among his followers: "We may be poor, but we are yumas!".
The context of mass deportations driven by the Trump administration in 2025 and 2026 has heightened these tensions, placing Cuban migrants in an uncomfortable position: caught between ICE operations and the mistrust of their own Latino neighbors.
The question posed by Marcos in his video—about who represents the greatest threat to Cubans in the United States—strikes a chord that, judging by the comments, many have been wanting to express for a long time.
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