The man spoke exclusively with Telemundo 51 on the condition of anonymity, terrified at the possibility of his family being deported before they can reunite with him.
The video that left him speechless
The clip was posted last Sunday by the influencer Carlos Eduardo Espina on Instagram.
In the images, someone is heard asking the family about their origin and how many days they have been in the desert.
“Where are you from? From Cuba. How many days have you been walking in the desert? Four days? Do you need a doctor, medical attention, an ambulance? Just for water and food? Yes”, the dialogue records.
The family consists of a mother who is 41 years old and two children: a young woman who is 22 years old and a minor who is 11 years old.
Upon seeing those images, the father could not contain his pain.
“That video hurts a lot, because they are my family and they are the most important thing to me in life,” he declared to the aforementioned media outlet.
The history of the father: Two years of journey to reach Miami
The man said that he left Cuba about two years ago.
His journey began in Santa Clara and took him through Nicaragua, several Central American countries, and Mexico, until he reached the United States border.
He managed to enter the country in 2024 through an appointment obtained via the CBP One app, a mechanism that the Trump administration later canceled, closing one of the few legal entry pathways available to Cubans.
“I came here the same way they did, by crossing, like many Cubans, to give my children a future, to provide a security that I can only guarantee here in the United States,” he stated.
However, their own immigration situation remains unresolved due to the changes implemented in various immigration programs since the Trump administration came back into power in January 2025.
The fear he always had became a reality
The father confessed that he always feared his wife would choose to embark on the same dangerous path he had walked years earlier.
Now that fear has become a reality, and on top of the anxiety regarding the physical state of his family, there looms the threat of deportation that would separate them indefinitely.
The context could not be more adverse.
This Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed the Secure America Act, a law that allocates approximately 70 billion dollars to fund the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol through 2029, suggesting an even greater intensification of deportations.
A crisis that affects thousands of Cubans
According to a report by Human Rights Watch, between January 20, 2025, and March 9, 2026, the United States deported at least 4,353 Cubans to Mexico, making them the largest national group among those deported from third countries.
Approximately 41% of those Cubans had been detained in Florida and 37% in Texas.
Many have been left in an indefinite legal limbo because Cuba refuses to accept them and Mexico does not offer a clear pathway to permanent residency.
In the first five months of 2026, the United States deported 612 Cubans in 18 operations, a number that reflects the accelerated pace of expulsions under the maximum pressure policy of the Trump administration.
The Cuban father in Miami is awaiting news from his family, unsure of what their fate will be, while his own immigration situation remains uncertain.
Filed under: