Immigration officials said Tomás Hernández worked in high-level posts for
Cuba’s foreign intelligence agency for decades before migrating to the United States to pursue the American dream.
The 71-year-old was detained by federal agents outside his Miami-area home in March and accused of hiding his ties to Cuba’s Co
mmunist Party when he obtained permanent residency.
Cuban-Americans in South Florida have long clamored for a firmer hand
with Havana and the recent apprehensions of Hernández and several
ther former Cuban officials for deportation have been extremely popular among t
e politically powerful exile community.
“It’s a political gift to Cuban-American hardliners,” said Eduardo Gam
arra, a Latin American expert at Florida International University. But many Cuba
ns fear they could be next on Trump’s list, he said, and “some in the community s
ee it as a betrayal.”
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Some Pleased, Others Worried
While President D
onald Trump’s mass deportation pledge has frightened migrants from many nations, it has come as something of a shock to the 2.
4 million Cuban-American
s, who strongly backed the Republican twice and have long enjoyed a place of privil
ege in the U.S. immigration system.
Amid record arrivals of migrants from the Caribbean island, Trump in March
revoked temporary humanitarian parole for about 300,000 Cubans. Many have been detained ahead of possible deportation.
Among those facing deportation is a pro-Trump Cuban rapper behind a hit song “Patria y Vida” — “Homeland and Life” — that became the unofficial anthem of anti-communist protests on the island in 2021 and drew praise from the likes of then Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, now Secretary of State. Eliéxer Márquez, who raps under the name El Funky, said he received notice this month that he had 30 days to leave the U.S.