MIAMI — Several Cuban migrants slated for deportation — whose confidential information Immigration and Customs Enforcement accidentally published online last month — received letters this week saying the agency is evaluating whether to free them from custody after a U.S official told Cuba about the unprecedented leak.
“On a case-by-case basis and depending on your eligibility, ICE will conduct a custody review to consider whether release is appropriate for you,” the letters read.
The Miami Herald had access to a Spanish version of the correspondence. It detailed a Dec. 7 phone call with the island’s government in which a Department of Homeland Security official linked a list of potential Cuban deportees with the mass leak of personal data of more than 6,000 migrants seeking protection in the United States from persecution and torture in their home countries.
DHS had “correctly provided” the list of potential deportees to Cuba previously as part of the removal process, according to Wednesday’s letter, and the list did not include the outcomes of the so-called credible- and reasonable-fear applications. But some potential deportees on the list had data leaked on Nov. 28, while others did not.
Cuban detainees at the Broward Transitional Center, an immigrant detention facility in Pompano Beach, received the letter on Dec. 20. ICE said it was notifying recipients about the DHS official’s disclosure out of “an abundance of caution,” so they could decide whether to seek help with the matter.
“Based on the Dec. 7 call, the Cuban government may assume that you sought protection in the United States.” reads the letter.
The data breach fiasco exploded on Nov. 28 after ICE mistakenly shared a document on its website with the names, citizenship, credible- and reasonable-fear screening outcomes of 6,000 plus immigrants in detention across the country. Days later, the federal government reported the leak to Cuba by mistake, indirectly confirming to the island that some of the potential deportees had claimed persecution or torture on the island.
The Herald spoke to several Cuban detainees at the Broward facility whose information was leaked. They said there were at least 17 of them at the center. Their stories had several things in common: They came to the United States this fall seeking refuge from political persecution, entering the southwest border through Texas. They had been held in ICE custody since entering the country and failed their credible-fear interviews, a decision the immigration courts affirmed. Then they received a first letter in early December, informing them for the first time about the Nov. 28 accidental upload of information to ICE’s website.
Since then, their fear of being deported has grown: Not only had they fled the country, they said, but now the Cuban government could find out that they had sought protection in the U.S. from persecution or torture.
“They gave us another letter apologizing… apologies, apologies, apologies, but they didn’t release us,” a Cuban detainee in Broward told the Herald on Thursday night.
“I know I will be jailed”
The Herald interviewed five Cuban detainees in the Joe Corley Detention facility in Texas, the center where the migrants currently at Broward were staying before ICE relocated them to South Florida. Several of them have family in Miami. Other Cuban detainees whose information was leaked on Nov. 28 are also being held at the South Texas Processing Center, according to documents and family members.
Several Cubans there received a letter this week saying that while they had not been affected by the Nov. 28 leak, the Dec. 7 call affected them since they were on the list of potential deportees previously sent to island officials. Their cases would also be evaluated to determine whether “release was adequate,” according to the correspondence.
“The Cuban government may have been able to determine that the individuals on those lists were seeking protection in the United States. Your name is on one of these lists,” reads the letter.
Santiago Saez, a 41-year-old man from Havana, is among them. He said that he left Cuba in late September. Only two days before leaving his homeland, he said authorities accused him of putting up a poster disparaging Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel in his neighborhood. Saez denied putting up the sign, but said he had been previously persecuted before over his participation in last year’s July 11 protests.
This week’s letter gave Saez hope that he will soon be able to reunite with his wife, Wendolin, who entered the country near the Mexican border town of Piedras Negras with him on Oct. 13. She was quickly released, while he remained in detention. Like other detainees at Joe Corley, Saez described intense fear over his possible deportation.
“I know how my country works,” he said. “I know I will be jailed if I touch Cuban soil.”
Family members weather uncertainty
The family members of the detained Cubans in Miami and Texas have consoled each other over Whatsapp, sharing middle-of-the-night messages overflowing with anxiety and desperation about the fate of their loved ones. They are also gathering to demand their freedom.
Outside of the Broward Transitional Center, family members have held protests to demand the release of their loved ones. Protesters wore white shirts with the faces of the detained and held up posters exclaiming “Cubans do have credible fear” and “We want freedom for all Cubans. I want my husband free.” At Versailles Restaurant near Little Havana, they’ve held up American flags and signs over their heads that exclaim “No to deportation. We are asking for another opportunity.”
They plan to protest again on Christmas Eve if their families haven’t made it home.
In some cases, family members of the detainees entered the U.S. together but were separated from their spouses and children at the southwest border.
Adelina Gonzalez fled the Cuban province of Holguín with her 18-year-old son Adrian Cruz Gonzalez and his younger brother. The mother and two children had come to the country to reunite with her husband, Alberto Cruz. He fled Cuba over a year ago. Ever since attending an aeronautical system course in Panama in 2006, he had been vocal about his opposition to the island’s government, which landed him in trouble at his job at the airport.
“Often they summoned me to the office and there they threatened me, that they were going to put me in jail,” Cruz said, “I would say that I was going to say whatever I wanted.”
Adelina Gonzalez, who stayed back, kept receiving threats. Authorities wanted Adrian, who is autistic, to join the military service. The family arrived in El Paso in mid-October.
But while authorities paroled Gonzalez and her youngest, they kept Adrian in a different line at the southwest border, she said. Adrian’s parents said that it is “impossible” for his son to defend himself in front of immigration authorities because of struggles with communication and social skills. They said that he had failed his credible-fear screening, a decision a judge later upheld.
“My son knew jail before going out and other normal things of his age,” Gonzalez said.
Adrian has been in custody at Texas detention facilities since entering the country. His mother stayed in Texas, hoping for her son’s release. His father is in Miami, waiting for his family. The boy’s parents described him as a brilliant student, chess champion and pizza lover, who they hoped would enroll in college once he came to the United States. Instead, they are now worried about the impact being detained in an immigrant facility could have on him as a person with autism.
“Everything about Adrian’s case has been riddled with errors,” said his father. “From separating from his mother, how he was processed, being in jail without lawyers.”
When Adrian had to get on a bus for a transfer, his mom recalled he told her, the cuffs were too heavy on him and he needed help from another detainee from Holguin to get up. Another time, when he was assigned a top bunk, he could not climb up, spending the entire night sitting up instead. Other detainees look after him, which gives his parents some comfort. They send him money so he can call them and play on a tablet. Adrian spends his time beating other detainees at chess and assembling the same puzzles over and over again.
He has started calling his mother several times a day asking when he will be able to get out, or whether there are any developments in his case. It’s the longest Adrian has ever been separated from his mother.
“I’ve told him that at least he’s spent time with other people, made friends,” Gonzalez said, describing how she tries to cheer him up. “And he tells me, ‘What an ugly way to make friends.’”
