MIAMI – Yudisleidy Molina is very afraid that her husband Dachiel could be sent back to Cuba next. On Monday, he went to a meeting at an Immigration office in Miami Lakes.
Molina was afraid for his life when he heard that another plane with Cuban refugees had landed in Havana.
“He called me and said they took him to Krome,” he said. “I think the message today was that if we can deport Cubans, we can deport anyone else,” said immigration lawyer Miguel Inda Romero.
For a while, Cubans weren’t sent home because Havana and Washington didn’t have a deal on deportations.
That’s changed, though, and people are worried that there will be more deportations now that Title 42 is about to end.
At a press meeting on Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said, “We are making it very clear that our border is not open and that coming illegally is against the law.”
He said again that the Biden government will start turning away refugees who don’t meet certain standards in order to get protection.
People have been waiting in Mexico for weeks or even months for Title 42 to end so they can get into the U.S.
“They think that all they have to do is show up on Thursday, and they’ll get a treat. “If someone wants to come to the U.S. and ask for asylum, they will have to download an application to their phone and wait for an interview,” said Inda Romero.
When CBS News Miami asked him about the migrants who didn’t download the program, he said, “They will be sent back to Mexico, and they won’t be allowed to come to the United States.”
This is a big change from what has been going on since Title 42 was made in March 2020. A migrant could enter the U.S. illegally more than once and be sent back to Mexico more than once. He or she was not sent to jail or given a fine.
Title 8 will be the only rule after Thursday. A migrant who illegally enters the U.S. for the first time can be fined or charged with a crime before being removed and not being able to come back for 5 years.
Also on Wednesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law that the state lawmakers had passed about immigration in Jacksonville.
The 43-page bill makes it illegal for other states to give undocumented aliens driver’s licenses and other forms of IDs.
Hospitals have to ask their patients about their health, and companies with 25 or more workers have to do the same with their staff.
Inda Romero, an immigration lawyer, said that this law, which was signed by the governor of Florida, will affect the home market and the job market.
Some of the guys who look for work in the parking lot of a hardware shop in SW Miami Dade are more afraid now than they were before.
One of them, who didn’t want to be named, said, “I see that (the new law) is bad for us because we won’t be able to go out and get a job, which is bad.”
The guy who says he’s waiting for an answer about protection doesn’t like the new law that will go into effect in Florida on July 1. He says that many people in his situation won’t be able to feed their families.
