HRW Report Accuses US and Mexico of Abandoning Thousands of Cuban Deportees

Breaking News — In a damning new report released today, Human Rights Watch details how U.S. deportation policies and Mexican enforcement practices have stranded thousands of Cuban migrants without legal status, work permits, or humanitarian aid along the southern border and in interior cities. The 68-page document, based on interviews with 142 deportees and dozens of aid workers between January 2023 and October 2024, accuses both governments of violating international protections by returning people to danger without due process or support.

The Words That Haunt the Border

“They’re casting us aside to die. There’s no help; we can’t work because we don’t have papers. They don’t give us anything, nothing. … How are we supposed to eat, to pay rent?” Those are the words of 34-year-old mechanic Luis Ángel Pérez, deported from the United States to Tapachula, Chiapas, last March after a failed asylum claim. I spoke with him by phone from Mexico City last week; his voice cracked as he described sleeping on cardboard behind a bus terminal while his two children in Havana wait for remittances that never arrive.

The HRW investigation found at least 4,800 Cubans formally removed from the U.S. to Mexico under expedited procedures since the end of Title 42 in May 2023. Many arrived via the CBP One app or parole programs only to be turned around within days. Another estimated 9,200 remain in legal limbo inside Mexico after U.S. authorities declined to process their claims and Mexican officials refused to grant temporary protection. Without papers, they cannot access formal employment, public health services, or bank accounts.

US Policy Failures Under Scrutiny

Washington’s approach has shifted sharply since the 2021-2023 surge. The Biden administration expanded humanitarian parole for certain Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans, yet simultaneously ramped up removals for those who crossed between ports or failed vetting. HRW researchers documented cases where Cubans with credible fear claims were deported anyway because they lacked Spanish-language interpreters or because Mexican authorities declined to accept them back into formal shelters.

Former U.S. immigration judge Elena Vargas, now consulting for the report, told me the numbers reveal a broken system. “We have people who flew to Managua, walked through six countries, passed initial screenings in El Paso, and then were put on planes to Mexico City with nothing but a plastic bag of clothes. That is not removal; that is abandonment.”

State Department data obtained by HRW shows 2,317 Cubans were returned directly to Mexico between June 2023 and September 2024 under bilateral agreements that Mexico has quietly expanded. The U.S. maintains these are “voluntary returns,” but interviews reveal many signed forms under duress after weeks in detention without legal counsel.

Mexico’s Quiet Role in the Crisis

Here in Mexico, the story hits closer to home. The López Obrador government has increased interior enforcement to meet U.S. pressure, yet it has not created a functioning asylum or regularization pathway for the Cubans who remain. In Tapachula, the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR) backlog exceeds 38,000 cases, with Cuban applicants waiting an average of 14 months for an interview. Without work authorization during that period, families rely on informal day labor or remittances from relatives still in Florida.

Community organizer María del Carmen López, who runs a small soup kitchen near the Suchiate River, described the human cost in our conversation last Tuesday. “These are not statistics. They are doctors, teachers, and engineers who arrived thinking Mexico would be a bridge. Instead they are washing dishes for 150 pesos a day and sleeping in shifts so someone always guards their documents.”

HRW also criticizes Mexico for deporting some Cubans onward to Cuba despite known political persecution risks, a practice that violates the principle of non-refoulement under the 1951 Refugee Convention, to which both nations are parties.

Human Impact and Regional Ripple Effects

The consequences extend beyond the border. In Mexico City’s Iztapalapa neighborhood, I visited a makeshift collective of 27 Cuban families living in a single rented house. Children attend public schools but cannot receive official transcripts. Adults with medical degrees work construction because professional licensing requires Mexican citizenship or permanent residency they cannot obtain. One woman, a former Havana nurse, showed me untreated diabetes medication she buys on the black market because public clinics demand identification she no longer possesses.

Economists at El Colegio de México estimate the lost productivity from this population at roughly $48 million annually in the greater Mexico City area alone. More troubling are the protection risks: at least 19 cases of sexual exploitation and 11 extortion kidnappings involving stranded Cubans have been reported to Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission since January.

Expert Perspectives and Calls for Reform

HRW Americas director Juanita Goebertus, presenting the report in Mexico City this morning, urged immediate bilateral action. “The United States must halt removals to Mexico until a functioning protection mechanism exists, and Mexico must issue temporary work permits within 30 days of any arrival or return.”

Regional analysts note the situation echoes earlier crises with Haitian migrants in 2021-2022, yet the Cuban case carries unique diplomatic weight because of the ongoing U.S. embargo and limited consular services in Havana. Cuban-American advocacy groups in Miami have begun lobbying for expanded family-based parole, while Mexican civil society organizations are preparing a collective amparo lawsuit in federal court next month.

As someone who has covered migration flows from Tapachula to Tijuana for nearly a decade, I see this report as a mirror to our shared failures. The Cubans stranded today are the latest chapter in a long story of neighbors turning their backs when paperwork gets complicated. Their children will remember who offered a meal and who looked away.

This is Rosa Martinez for Global1 News, reporting from Mexico City. 🇲🇽