Immigration attorney Wilfredo "Willy" Allen analyzed this Monday the real possibilities that the 69 Cubans deported to the Central African Republic last week have to return to the United States, and the answer depends, case by case, on the status of each individual within the immigration system when they were transferred to Bangui.
The group —64 men and five women— left on October 21 from Alexandria, Louisiana, on the deportation flight to a third country, the largest to date. “These 69 Cubans, 5 women and 64 men, many of whom have no criminal records. Their only offense is having illegally entered the United States,” noted journalist Tania Costa while presenting the case during the interview.
Allen, for his part, established three categories with very different perspectives.
The first group consists of those who were deported due to criminal records. "Those who have committed criminal offenses and are already deported for those crimes will never return," stated the lawyer. However, he clarified that these cases are a minority within the group.
The second category includes those who have exhausted all avenues of the asylum system—having been denied by the immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). For them, the outlook is grim but not entirely closed. "For those who had a final asylum court decision and were denied asylum by a judge, and whose appeal was denied by the Immigration Board, returning will not be impossible," said Allen. One option he mentioned is that if, in the future, the courts recognize the I-220A form as equivalent to the parole required by the Cuban Adjustment Act, some might attempt to reopen their cases from abroad.
The third category —and the one with the best prospects— is that of those who were deported without having a final resolution. "These individuals have the best chance of being able to return through the Federal Courts," Allen assured.
Tania Costa mentioned that at least one or two members of the previous group were in that situation, including a case where a habeas corpus petition had been filed without a response before the deportation. "That's tragic," the lawyer commented, although he specified that that person "has a chance" if the deportation order was not final.
An additional obstacle complicates any appeal: jurisdiction. Louisiana, from where the flight departed, is part of the Fifth Federal Circuit, which last Thursday issued a full ruling —by 10 votes to seven— in the case Sosnava Rodriguez v. Ortega, upholding the detention without bail of undocumented migrants and effectively blocking most habeas corpus appeals in that region. "The fifth circuit is the most conservative circuit and has issued the most anti-immigrant federal orders, and it issued a new one last week," Allen warned.
The situation in Bangui is equally precarious. The deportees arrived handcuffed and without immigration documents, lacking legal status or authorization to work, housed in buildings with basic support from UN agencies. A Cuban deported in August, Yasmany Moreno de Armas, reported in a video the extreme conditions they are facing in that country: "We have malaria and there are no medications."
"Look, I think it's tragic. I suspect that those who were I-220A, if they don't have final deportation orders, might be able to return," Allen summarized, making it clear that the path back, when it exists, will be long and without guarantees.
El caso de estos cubanos deportados a África pone de relieve la complejidad del sistema migratorio estadounidense. Sigue todos los detalles y novedades en nuestra sección de
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