MEXICO CITY – According to a Human Rights Watch report unveiled on Wednesday, the Trump administration has deported approximately 13,000 individuals from Cuba, Venezuela, and other nations to Mexico, leaving them susceptible to cartel-related violence in unfamiliar territories.
Mexico has historically accepted such deportations, but under the Trump administration, the profile of those being deported has shifted. Many are older and have spent a significant portion of their lives in the United States, complicating their ability to secure employment and heightening their need for medical services.
The findings, derived from over 50 interviews conducted in Tapachula and Villahermosa, two cities in southern Mexico, highlight the impact of President Trump’s intensified immigration enforcement and deportation initiatives.
This enforcement sweep has unexpectedly ensnared immigrants who were previously overlooked, including long-term U.S. residents from Cuba. Due to restrictions on deportation flights to places like Cuba and Venezuela, these individuals are often redirected to Mexico or other nations with which the U.S. has arrangements.
“Imagine being in your 60s or 70s, suddenly torn from your life and sent to a foreign country where you’re abandoned without access to essential services like shelter and healthcare, left in perilous cities with nothing but the clothes on your back,” explained Alcira Hava, a Leonard H. Sandler Fellow at Human Rights Watch involved in the report.
“This is the stark reality for many Cubans who find themselves deported to Mexico,” Hava added.
Cubans represent the largest group sent to Mexico, according to the report, with more than 4,300 deported. More than half the 41 Cubans interviewed had lived in the U.S. since the 1980s or 1990s, arriving during the Mariel boatlift or lottery program in the 1990s. Most had a green card but had lost it.
More than half the Cubans deported had a criminal record, but only 16% were for violent crimes, according to the researchers. One-fourth had no criminal history.
Most were detained at routine check-ins with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but some were detained at their workplace or in public spaces. None were taken before a judge to contest their deportation to Mexico, even when they expressed fear for their safety.
The Cuban diaspora, with access to a fast-tracked pathway to residency and citizenship through the Cuban Adjustment Act, has been shocked by the extent of Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Once in Mexico, these deportees are sent to southern cities with few job opportunities, limited access to medical care and where cartels prey on them. They face a complicated logistical process to receive refugee status in Mexico, if they even qualify.
A shelter in Villahermosa has received Cuban deportees as old as 83 in the past year, a departure from the young men and families it usually receives, according to shelter worker Josué Leal.
“The U.S. discards them. Cuba discards them,” Leal said, calling it a form of “double punishment.”
How the third country deportations are being carried out is unclear, since neither the U.S. or Mexico has made the agreement public. HRW called for both countries to publish the agreement and to ensure that due process and international law is respected in these cases.
It called on Mexico to ensure access to medical treatment and a pathway to legalize immigration status for those who can’t return to their home countries. It called on the U.S. to suspend these deportations, barring these guarantees.
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