The Immigration Lawyer Willy Allen issued a direct warning to Cubans who entered the United States through humanitarian parole: their status adjustment interviews under the Cuban Adjustment Act will be more intense than expected, with detailed questions not only about their history in Cuba, but also about the person who sponsored them.
Allen explained that the history of fraud detected in the humanitarian parole program —known as CHNV— is the reason behind this additional scrutiny. He mentioned a specific scandal: "There was a person in Texas who had sponsored dozens of people."
According to the lawyer, USCIS officials will not limit themselves to asking about the applicant's background on the Island. "They are not just going to interview you about who you are, what you were doing in Cuba, what you did in Cuba, what your story is in Cuba, what you participated in and what you did not participate in. In addition to your story, which they will scrutinize thoroughly, they will ask very detailed questions about who sponsored you, what kind of assistance you received in the United States, and what kind of relationship you had with the sponsor," he warned.
The questions that Allen anticipated are straightforward: Did you pay a sponsor? Do you know who they were? What is your relationship with that person? The lawyer acknowledged that many Cubans had sponsors with whom they barely had any real contact. "It was my cousin who lives in Wisconsin, and I came to live in Miami. I actually didn't see him. Whatever it is, but your truth. Be prepared."
Allen also hinted that the group that will receive the most rigorous interviews will be precisely the one with the largest volume. "I suspect that if they are going to identify a group of Cubans for more intense interviews, it will be the 120,000 who entered through humanitarian parole."
An element that makes this preparation urgent is that the pause that existed in the Cuban adjustment interviews has now been lifted. "There is no longer a pause," confirmed Allen, in line with what lawyer Liudmila Marcelo reported on June 4 regarding a "silent lifting" of that pause, with interviews already conducted at the USCIS office in Jacksonville, Florida. Later, on June 12, USCIS confirmed the lifting of the pause.
Fraud in the CHNV program was documented as early as 2024. The Department of Homeland Security found 100,948 forms submitted by only 3,218 "serial" sponsors, in addition to 100 addresses used between 124 and 739 times and a phone number that appeared on more than 2,000 forms. In Miami, federal authorities arrested Mario Henry García in April 2023, accused of creating false financial sponsors for immigration procedures.
For those with a scheduled interview, Allen offered four concrete recommendations: to go accompanied by a lawyer, to prepare in advance, to have all the correct details, and to bring your own interpreter, as lawyers cannot fulfill that role simultaneously.
The lawyer summarized the situation with an image that leaves no room for doubt: "It's like a little red light that is now starting to turn on. One cannot take a Cuban adjustment interview lightly."
Filed under: