The Cuban singer Aymée Nuviola posted a video on her Instagram account this Tuesday, in which she made a passionate appeal for empathy and compassion towards Cubans and other immigrants who are facing detentions and deportations by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The artist based in Doral, in Miami-Dade County, said she has been "thinking about this for many days" and feels "sadness and anger" at the lack of compassion she observes on social media, where users attack those who report the detention of family members by ICE.
"It fills me with such sadness and anger to see the lack of compassion. The wicked abound on social media. Gentlemen, you need to stop," stated Nuviola.
Las detenciones y deportaciones de cubanos por parte de ICE siguen generando debate. Mantente informado sobre estos y otros desarrollos en nuestra sección de
The singer did not take a stance on whether deportations are right or wrong—she acknowledged that there are immigration laws in the United States—but she directed her criticism at those who, on pages where someone is grieving for a detained family member, respond by citing legal articles instead of offering a word of comfort.
"They are more legal than anyone else, and that is to be completely indifferent to the situation others are going through," he noted.
One of the central arguments of his message was that no Cuban in the United States is in a position to judge others, because almost all arrived through means that, in one way or another, involved resorting to exceptional mechanisms.
"Here, no one, you know, no one is exempt from having circumvented the law at some point. Those who crossed the border, went and turned themselves in, and said, 'political asylum,' and then took advantage of the Cuban Adjustment Act, they circumvented the law. And there are plenty of examples of that here."
Regarding those who arrived through the visa lottery program—commonly known as "the lottery"—Nuviola was straightforward: "It's a program established by the government to encourage orderly emigration and diversity in emigration. So, you are here by the mercy of God and that program if you came that way. You should show mercy to those who are currently going through difficult situations."
The artist also made an important distinction between those with criminal records—whose deportation she acknowledged as foreseen—and those with pending asylum cases in the courts.
"There are other people who have submitted an asylum application and are waiting, as has always been the case, for a court decision. And those people are also being detained," he warned.
"I live in Doral and I am witnessing what is happening with all the people there," she added, referring to the city in the Miami metropolitan area with a high concentration of Venezuelans, where ICE operations have intensified in recent weeks.
Nuviola, who crossed the border from Mexico and was briefly detained before settling in the United States under the Cuban Adjustment Act, concluded her message with a phrase that encapsulates her entire address: "We must have mercy and empathy for people."
The video was produced days after Tom Homan, the so-called "border czar" of the Trump administration, responded to the fear regarding the raids in Doral with the phrase: "They voted for Trump to enforce the law".
The context is one of unprecedented escalation: the arrests of Cubans by ICE increased by 463% between late 2024 and early 2026, and since the beginning of Trump's second term until April of this year, nearly 2,000 Cubans have been deported to Cuba.
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