Giménez asks Homeland Security to deport over 100 immigrants accused of repression in Cuba
Cuban American U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez asked the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday to investigate and deport over a hundred Cubans accused of repressive activities on the island who are believed to have settled in the United States in recent years.
In his letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristo Noem, Giménez, a Republican from Miami who serves on the House Homeland Security Committee, told her the people he identified with the names and past affiliations in the document 'had direct ties with the Cuban Communist Party and the repressive state security apparatus' and 'pose a direct threat to our national security.
'The presence of these regime operatives not only endangers our communities but also provides a foothold for the Cuban dictatorship to engage in espionage, political coercion and illicit activities within our borders,' he added. 'It is unacceptable that the United States would provide sanctuary to individuals who have actively worked to oppress and persecute the Cuban people, especially when countless legitimate asylum seekers await their opportunity to seek refuge in our country.'
According to Giménez's letter, the list of 108 names is from a database created by the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba. In February 2023, the group said it had identified 20 alleged human rights violators who had moved to the United States from the island. The organization´s researchers have said they vet the accusations against the people included in the database by talking to victims and conducting independent research.
The people named in Giménez's letter are former Cuban intelligence and state security officials, government and Communist Party officials and members of the judiciary who prosecuted and sentenced dissidents and anti-government protestors, and even a former lieutenant colonel in charge of two prisons in the province of Matanzas. Some are people who are accused of collaborating with the security apparatus.
Some cases drew condemnation when news of their arrival in the U.S. became public last year. When Manuel Menéndez Castellanos, a former Communist Party head in the province of Cienfuegos, flew into Miami International Airport in August, South Florida U.S. Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart, María Elvira, Salazar and Giménez asked the Biden administration to investigate the conditions of his arrival. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a Florida U.S. senator at the time, and Sen. Rick Scott signed the letter.
As the situation deteriorated on the island in recent years and over a million people left the country for the United States and other countries, human rights organizations and Cuban independent media have sounded the alarm about some former government officials moving to South Florida. Some arrived through the border with Mexico, but others, like Menéndez Castellanos, appeared to have immigrated legally, through parole programs that have been since eliminated by the Trump administration.
The phenomenon is not entirely new, since many former Cuban government officials have defected to the United States over the years. But activists tracking this latest development say that unlike those defecting from the communist regime, the individuals flagged on the list might have gamed the system and lied about their past, an accusation that Giménez echoed in his letter.
At least one of the people he named has already been detained. Tomas Emilio Hernández Cruz, 71, a former high-ranking official in the Cuban intelligence service, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Protection and the FBI last week in Broward County. The agencies said he made fraudulent claims on his immigration application for a green card and is awaiting deportation.
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