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Trump Administration Ramps up Deportations to Cuba

Associated Press

   MIAMI - After seeking asylum in the United States at the Mexican
   border, Pablo Sanchez was placed in a detention center and is now
   facing what has become an increasingly common scenario under President
   Donald Trump: deportation to Cuba.

   Since the end of the Obama administration, the number of Cubans
   deported from the U.S. has increased more than tenfold to more than 800
   in the past year as the Trump administration enforces a new policy
   inked just days before it took over. It is also imposing its own sharp
   limits on who is eligible for asylum. That's an unwelcome development
   for growing numbers of asylum-seeking Cubans who had long benefited
   from a generous U.S. approach and their government's unwillingness to
   take its people back.

   For decades, Cubans fleeing the communist-governed island had for the
   most part enjoyed unique privileges. Even after the cold war ended,
   they were given a certain path to legal residence once they touched
   U.S. soil through the policy known as "wet foot, dry foot."

   No more wet foot, dry foot

   But an agreement reached during the final days of the Obama
   administration ended that and required Cuba to take back citizens who
   receive deportation orders going forward and consider on a case-by-case
   basis the return of the thousands of other Cubans who had received such
   orders over the decades but remained in the U.S. because their country
   wouldn't take them back.

   Since Trump took office, more Cubans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border
   have encountered new limits, including a policy introduced last month
   that denies protection to asylum seekers who have passed through
   another country before reaching Mexico and have not sought asylum
   there.

   Despite the new agreement, Cuba remains reluctant to take its people
   back, and is one of 10 countries that the U.S. government labels
   "recalcitrant." That makes it difficult for the administration to
   enforce its aggressive measures against asylum -- and leaves many
   Cubans in limbo.

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