Cuba Responds to Trump’s Mass Deportation Proposal: "Unrealistic and Unfair"

Cuba has rejected a proposal by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump for the mass deportation of immigrants living illegally in the United States, including potential deportations of Cuban nationals, describing it as both unrealistic and unfair.

Trump, who has pledged to enforce a stringent immigration crackdown, aims to deport record numbers of undocumented immigrants. His running mate, JD Vance, has suggested that the deportation effort could target up to 1 million people annually. However, Cuba's Deputy Foreign Minister, Carlos Fernandez de Cossio, argued that such a plan is not feasible under the current framework of U.S.-Cuba migration agreements.

Speaking to reporters in Havana following routine migration talks with U.S. officials from the Biden administration, de Cossio stated, "In that context, it's not realistic to think that there could be mass deportations from the United States to Cuba." Under existing accords, Cuba has accepted small numbers of deportees by both air and sea, particularly during the Biden administration.

Trump's incoming border czar, Tom Homan, has indicated that deportations would focus on individuals with criminal records and those who have received final deportation orders. However, he has not confirmed whether specific groups or nationalities, such as Cubans, would be exempted.

De Cossio noted that the Trump administration's proposal was not discussed during the U.S.-Cuba migration talks, which were aimed at reviewing the U.S.-Cuba Migration Accords signed in 1984. Brian Nichols, the top U.S. diplomat for Latin America, stated that the U.S. delegation emphasized its success in curbing irregular Cuban migration by both sea and land.

It remains uncertain whether Trump will honor existing migration agreements or attempt to renegotiate them, as he has done with other international accords. For decades, Cuba has blamed the U.S. trade embargo, a legacy of the Cold War, for crippling its economy and contributing to the mass migration of Cuban citizens to the United States.

De Cossio criticized the proposal for large-scale deportations, calling it "drastic and unfair." He emphasized that deporting tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of Cubans would uproot individuals who have already established lives in the U.S.

During his first term, Trump faced challenges in accelerating deportations, although U.S. data from fiscal year 2023 showed that the Biden administration had deported more immigrants than Trump did in any single year, including both formal removals and faster "returns" to Mexico.

Immigrant advocacy groups have warned that a mass deportation effort under Trump would be costly, divisive, and inhumane, leading to family separations and further harm to communities across the U.S.