Robin Peguero, the Democratic candidate for Congress from Florida's 27th district, promised to resume the processing of cases for Cubans with I-220A forms under the Cuban Adjustment Act so they can obtain permanent residency. He made this statement on Friday during an interview with journalist Tania Costa.
Peguero, 40 years old, a former homicide prosecutor in Miami and the son of immigrants raised in Hialeah, aims to unseat Republican Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar in the elections this November 2026.
"(The I-220A) are now in limbo, they are scared because their cases are not being processed. They don’t have that pathway to citizenship as they did before. So I want to go back to processing those cases," Peguero stated.
The candidate explained that his proposal aims to unfreeze the pathway to citizenship for those with no violent criminal history, while asserting that criminals should be deported.
"All the people here under I-220A who do not have violent backgrounds, of course, because those who are violent criminals must be deported. They have lost the privilege of being in this country," he stated.
Peguero emphasized that his experience as a prosecutor supports his stance. "As a homicide prosecutor, I endorsed the deportation of many individuals who harmed our community. Therefore, we need to focus on deporting those people. The Cubans who are here under I-220A must stay and deserve that pathway."
The candidate directly attacked Salazar for having made the same promises without fulfilling them, and accused her of speaking with a double face to her community.
"The issue with Congresswoman Salazar is that she says one thing in English and something completely different in Spanish," Peguero stated, noting that in English, the congresswoman has claimed that even Cubans who arrived after the protests of July 11 in 2021 and those with I-220A should be deported, but she does not repeat this in Spanish.
"She said that in English, but she doesn't say it in Spanish. It's because for her, the most important thing is President Donald J. Trump, and not, unfortunately, the members of our community who are suffering," he added.
The I-220A issue affects more than 300,000 Cubans who arrived in the United States during the migration wave of 2021-2023 and found themselves in a migratory limbo because this document does not equate to formal parole, which is a necessary requirement of the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 to apply for permanent residency.
The situation worsened under the Trump administration, which suspended humanitarian parole for Cubans and expedited deportations. Almost 550,000 Cubans could be at risk of deportation due to these measures.
In the judicial arena, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals rejected in February 2026 criteria that excluded holders of I-220A from the Cuban Adjustment Act. A judge granted residency to a Cuban with I-220A in January of that same year, setting a precedent; this was repeated this week in the Orlando Court, where another judge granted residency to a Cuban with I-220A, the client of CiberCuba collaborator, attorney Liudmila Marcelo.
Peguero, a Harvard graduate and former investigator for the January 6 committee, has raised over $820,000 from individual donors and has the support of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The Democratic primary in the 27th district, which has a 74% Hispanic population and includes Little Havana, Coral Gables, and parts of Kendall, is scheduled for August 18, 2026.
Meanwhile, the class action in favor of Cubans with I-220A remains pending in the federal court of southern Florida, and thousands of families await a definitive resolution that will pave the way for their legalization.
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