Cuba: Trump's plan for mass deportation of immigrants is unrealistic

2024-12-05 08:28:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

US President-elect Donald Trump's proposal to deport en masse immigrants living illegally in the United States, which may include Cubans, is unrealistic and unfair, the deputy foreign minister said. Cuba, Carlos Fernandez de Cossio.

Trump has vowed to crack down on immigration, deporting a record number of immigrants. US Vice President-elect JD Vance has estimated that up to 1 million people could be deported annually.

De Cossio made the comments on Wednesday after a conversation about immigration with counterparts from the administration of US President Joe Biden in Havana.

Any such deportation proposal must be considered within the confines of existing immigration agreements between the United States and Cuba, he told reporters.

"In this context, it is not realistic to think that there could be mass deportations from the United States to Cuba," de Cossio said.

Under existing agreements, Cuba has accepted a small number of people deported from the US by air and sea during the Biden administration.

Tom Homan, Trump's border appointee, has said that mostly criminals and those with final deportation orders will be deported, but has not specifically excluded certain groups or nationalities.

Trump's deportation proposal was not discussed with Biden officials during bilateral immigration talks on Wednesday, de Cossio said.

A US delegation met with Cuban officials in Havana to review the US-Cuba Migration Agreements, which date back to 1984, said Brian Nichols, the top US diplomat for Latin America.

"The delegation highlighted our success in curbing irregular immigration by sea and land from Cuba," Nichols said.

It is not clear whether Trump will honor existing agreements with Cuba or try to renegotiate them, as he has done in other circumstances.

For decades, Cuba has blamed the US's Cold War-era trade embargo for destroying its economy and fueling the mass emigration of Cubans to the United States.

But mass deportation and repatriation would be drastic and unfair, de Cossio said.

"Trying to deport tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of Cubans to Cuba... means uprooting people who have already built their lives in the United States," he added./ Rel