The immigration attorney Willy Allen III warned that the increasing xenophobic climate towards Cubans in Mexico —documented in recent incidents in Cancun and Mexico City— is not sufficient, from a legal standpoint, to stop a deportation or to substantiate an asylum request.
The question arose during a live interview with journalist Tania Costa, where the audience wanted to know if this atmosphere of rejection could have practical consequences for Cubans facing deportation from the United States to Mexican territory.
Allen acknowledged the existence of the problem: "I generally know what happened with this... let's say this xenophobic atmosphere towards Cubans, this rejection of Cubans in Cancún. We do not know if it will extend to all of Mexico."
Tania Costa also recalled the attack against Cuban filmmaker Ernesto Fundora during the presentation of his documentary about Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara in Mexico City on May 20, when a group of protesters burst into the event and assaulted attendees. "The Mexican communists showed up and smashed everything with sticks. There is a kind of animosity... there is a sort of rejection, a rejection towards Cubans," the journalist described.
However, Allen was unequivocal in his legal analysis: "This could influence the deportation of Cubans to Mexico. It does affect me, but at the end of the day, it's not something public that the Mexican government is implementing against Cubans."
The lawyer explained that the legal standard for asylum requires that the persecution comes from the government or from a group that the government can control. "If a person says, 'Look, I don't want to go to Mexico because I saw some news about cases that happened in Mexico,' that is not enough," he clarified.
The situation becomes even more serious for those who have already been deported. According to Allen, if a Cuban is sent from the United States to Mexico and then suffers persecution in that country, there is no legal mechanism to request protection back to U.S. territory: "Once you get kicked out, there's nothing to be done. Basically, there's basically nothing to do."
This scenario affects thousands of Cubans. According to figures from Human Rights Watch, between January 20, 2025, and March 9, 2026, approximately 4,353 Cubans were deported to Mexico as part of the Trump administration's scheme to send migrants from third countries who cannot be repatriated to their home nations to that country. Many have been left stranded in cities like Tapachula and Villahermosa without documents or work permits.
In the same broadcast, a viewer identified as Raudel García asked whether the administration would ever process the pending immigration applications, stating that "instead of looking for ways to improve, they waste their time and resources on methods to obstruct the processes."
Allen agreed with the frustration: "This is how it feels, like they're doing everything possible to close all the doors. It's very frustrating."
Nevertheless, the lawyer maintained a tone of resistance towards the Cuban community: "It’s battle after battle. At the end of the day, I believe we will win the war, but the battles are going to be very tough."
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