As Cubans on both sides of the Florida Strait began to accept what a new US travel ban meant for family reunion hopes, many flocked to social media of distress, including children seeking help.
“President Trump, please reconsider family unity for residents,” said the 10-year-old in a video recorded by Hubber in Havana. The video was published by her mother, Lia Llanes, a permanent US resident in Miami, one of several Facebook groups Cubans are discussing the new ban.
“I’m a child, like many others, waiting for an interview to reunite with their parents so they can grow up and become citizens in this beautiful country,” the child says in the video. “With great pride, please, please, reconsider, and I ask God to enlighten you. Thank you.”
The child was taking English lessons and preparing for a new life in the United States. The petition to take his daughter to the US was just approved in late May, and the family was waiting for a visa interview at the US embassy in Havana.
President Donald Trump has since recently announced a travel ban halting the issuance of immigration visas to Cuban relatives of permanent U.S. residents, reuniting many families’ plans.
“It’s very heartbreaking to know that your claim is approved and this is going to happen,” said Llanes, who ran a small business and obtained a green card after being paroled at the US border in 2022.
“It’s hard to explain,” she said. “You have a daughter there and you’re here, it’s weird. And in some ways you have good news, and everything next changes.”
The new Trump ban restricts travel for most citizens in Cuba, Venezuela and five other countries, and bans Haiti and the other 11 other countries entirely. This is a tragic blow to a family who had already been waiting to be reunited in the US.
Standing in a room full of boxes with beds, she hoped that her children would sleep when they joined the US. “I don’t have a life anymore,” she said in a video she posted on Facebook.
Riella came to the US from Cuba in 2019 and has her own small cleaning company in Tampa, she told the Herald. Like Llanes’ daughter, her children, now 16, 17 and 19, were also awaiting visa interviews at the US embassy in Havana.
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However, their arrival became an urgent matter. This is because her own mother, who has cared for Riella’s three children in Granma, a state in eastern Cuba, has developed metastatic cancer. In addition to her despair, the Cuban doctor told her that her eldest son now had a heart condition due to the stress caused by their separation.
“We should consider that our permanent residents also have children in the prison country, and that we are in prison and we are with us,” she said. “At least they should consider that there are children who don’t come here to commit terrorism or to do harm to this country.”
The ban, announced last Wednesday, suspends immigration visas for adult children, both relatives of US citizens and permanent residents of the US from 19 countries included in the executive order. Only direct relatives of American parents and parent companies, spouses, parents and minor children are permitted to enter the United States under an order that states that the White House will “protect the United States against foreign terrorists and other national security and public safety threats.”
Cubans, Haitians and Venezuelans with visas issued by June 8th can still travel to the United States. However, on Monday, relatives of some US permanent residents who attended a scheduled visa interview at the US embassy in Havana were issued in Spanish, stating they were “not eligible for an immigration visa” under the new directive. The document also said their cases were not an exception, citing US national security interests.
The State Department did not say whether applicants whose immigration visas have been denied under new travel restrictions will have the opportunity to present their case again. He also did not say whether cases involving young children constitute an exception that the Secretary of State can make on a case-by-case basis. However, an agency spokesperson said, “Emergency humanitarian medical trips may be considered the basis for such an exception. Otherwise, only those eligible for a visa will be considered.”
On Wednesday, a mother with a Miami mobile phone number joined a WhatsApp chat group for Cubans who have been on hold immigration cases. Her child is being interviewed scheduled later this week.
“I’m just talking to him, he’s so innocent, he’s so unaware of this and he’ll be very happy with his appointment tomorrow,” she said, crying in a voice message.
One of the group’s most active commenters replied, “God is wonderful. Maybe he’ll accept that little boy there.”
Historic departure
Many families separated by the ban have been part of historic departures from Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela in recent years.
In introducing a travel ban, Trump allowed four national citizens to migrate to the United States for two years, gaining financial sponsorship, passing background checks and passing airports, partially allowing the Biden administration to allow more than half a million Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans to the United States.
But so many people from four countries known as CHNV have taken advantage of the programmes that stem from legal immigration hurdles and restrictive policies that Trump introduced during his first term.
Among other things, his administration suspended Cuban family reintegration programs and similar programs for the Haitians. During those years, the US embassies of the three countries faced a political and humanitarian crisis that had now contributed to the historic escape, halting visa processing or expanding modest appointments, preventing people from moving legally.
Anguish and uncertainty
Since Trump signed his declaration, Cubans on the US and the island have been discussing and sharing information about new immigration restrictions for several groups on WhatsApp and Facebook. Many people share their stories and pray for a “miracle” as they give each other hope that the ban may be temporary.
The directive says after three months of enactment, the president will consider the Secretary of State’s recommendations on whether to continue limiting the target country’s citizens. A review will then be conducted every six months. However, lifting restrictions relies on foreign governments to improve “information sharing and identity management protocols and practices.”
So far, the Cuban government has been interested in improving cooperation with the United States and has not informed that it has instead attacked Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
After the travel ban was announced, the Cuban Foreign Minister said, “We aim to deceive Americans, condemn and violate the rights of immigrants. Anti-Cuban politicians, including the Secretary of State, are the main supporters of the measure and aim to betray the communities that elected them.”
Trump’s declaration also points out that Cuba remains on the list of US countries sponsoring terrorism.
The ban also comes at particularly difficult times for Haitians in countries suffering from gang violence. In a statement, the US-backed transitional presidential council in Haiti said it plans to “open negotiations and technical discussions” with the Trump administration to remove Haiti from its target country.
This was probably a tall order, given that more than 1.3 million Haitians remained displaced and that the armed gangs who manage most of the present Port-au-Prince make circulation difficult, raising questions about the authorities’ ability to improve review procedures and information sharing with the United States.
For Haiti, the ban prohibits all citizens from entering unless it falls under some exceptions considered in the new directive.
Like many Haitians who arrived in the US on the first day of the travel ban, 71-year-old Eraus Alzime didn’t fully understand the impact. The father of 10 was in Haiti and when he visited his children and urged him to go back to the US, he had to travel by bus and experienced three gang checkpoints, he said.
“Of course I feel like I’m in panic,” Aljime said. “The bandits will get off you and let them check your suitcase and see what you have. You have no choice, you have to do it.
Altzme, a US citizen, said he applied to allow six children to legally migrate to the United States. The oldest is 43 years old and the youngest is 14 years old. His adult children are not allowed to travel to the United States under the current ban.
“I applied to the kids, but they haven’t given them to me yet,” he said.
Arisme, a victim of the country’s constant violence, says he has no choice but to travel to Haiti for his children.
“We have to go and see how they’re doing,” he said.
“We’re depressed.”
As news about the travel ban sinks, parents worry about the psychological toll that lingering separation has on children, especially those who are too young to grasp immigration policies.
26-year-old Gleydys Sarda and her husband made the difficult decision to escape from Cuba, leaving their 3-year-old son in 2022 in caring for their grandparents. Now he is six years old and is increasingly eager to be with his parents, under the care of his grandparents.
“We’re depressed due to the long waits. We’ve used up our excuses when he asks why he can’t stay with us,” said Salda, a permanent US resident and a worker at Amazon at a Coral Springs warehouse. “He’s been more than ever getting tired of wanting to be here, waiting, more than ever. And now, this limitation has broken our hearts. We have no other way.”
Salda’s visa petition to take him to the US has not yet been approved. The couple tried to bring him in using a special parole program created by the Biden administration, but they never heard a response from US immigration authorities.
Salda, who is currently pregnant, is worried about the idea of traveling to Cuba to see her child. When she last visited in January, she said, “Goodbye was just too hard. The three of us are so happy when we’re there, but after we leave, I feel like we’ve made him worse.”
Salda said the boy was depressed after the boy left.
“Now I am looking for a second child and going to Cuba with one child is heartbreaking and I will go back with one child and leave in Cuba.”
