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Heidy Sánchez was deported from Florida to her native Cuba in late April in what her agents describe as a “shady” process. She came to the US from Mexico in 2019.
Heidy Sanchez was deported from the US to Cuba and was separated from her 17-month-old daughter. (Reuters)
A Cuban-origin woman, who was deported from the US state of Florida, was forced to leave behind her infant daughter, as both husband and daughter were US citizens, amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration.
Heidy Sánchez was deported from Florida to her native Cuba in late April. She had crossed into the US from Mexico in 2019 during the first Trump administration, amid kidnapping and extortion threats from cartels, according to CNN.
The first Trump administration required asylum seekers to wait on the other side of the border for immigration appointments, but Sánchez crossed the border and told immigration agents that her life was at risk in Mexico due to the cartel threat. She was allowed to stay and released to join her family in Tampa, Florida after nine months in immigration custody.
She then studied to become a nursing assistant and met her husband, a naturalised US citizen also from Cuba. After undergoing several in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatments, Sánchez gave birth to a girl. “I don’t know if it was the American dream. But it was my dream, my family,” she told CNN.
Why Was Sánchez Deported?
Sánchez had missed an immigration hearing in 2019, and Trump’s crackdown meant there was little time left for her. In April, Sánchez was contacted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that an appointment she had with officers was being moved up to the next day. Her attorneys told her that it was likely a routine check-in.
However, when she showed up for the appointment with her daughter Kailyn and an attorney, ICE agents told her she was being taken into custody and to hand over her daughter to relatives. “Call the father to come get her, you are staying here,” she said the agents informed her.
Sánchez said she pleaded with the agents not to take away her daughter. The US Department of Homeland Security later denied Sánchez and her attorney’s accounts that she was not given the option to take her daughter with her.
“We take our responsibility to protect children seriously and will continue to work with federal law enforcement to ensure that children are safe and protected,” said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.
Sánchez’s attorney said they tried to stop her deportation by arguing that her removal would hurt her daughter, who she was breast feeding and has suffered seizures. However, as her attorneys were requesting a hearing, Sánchez was already put on a deportation flight to Havana.
“In cases like this (there are) very strong humanitarian factors, and (Heidy) did not deserve to be removed the way she was,” Sánchez’s attorney Claudia Cañizares told CNN, calling the entire process “shady”.
Any possible legal avenue for Sánchez to return to the US could likely take years, according to the attorney, although her family is hoping that the backlash could lead to public support among the Cuban-American community to enable a reunification.
Life In Cuba
Meanwhile, Sánchez is finding it difficult to adjust to the worsening conditions in Cuba, where frequent power outages and growing shortages have made life even harsher than it was when she left six years ago. She lives in a house with relatives where parts of the ceiling are caving in and electricity is cut for hours every day.
She also has to walk several blocks away or go to the roof of the house to call her husband and daughter. “I have to pump milk which should feed my daughter and throw it in the trash,” she said. “That hurts me so much to do.”
Her 17-month-old daughter now has trouble sleeping and is struggling with convulsions again following her mother’s deportation. “Her father puts recordings of me singing to her so that she can sleep. I am suffering but I know my girl is suffering more,” she added.
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