Cuban Deportee Rebuilds Life in Rural Cuba After US Expulsion
A Cuban man who spent five years building a life in the US returns to his hometown of Las Minas, where power cuts and food prices shape daily survival.
Liexer De La Cruz walked into a Miami federal courtroom on January 9 expecting a routine immigration hearing. Instead, he was told to decide his future on the spot: return to Cuba or remain in the United States at constant risk of deportation. His wife and sister waited outside, and he had no chance to consult them before the judge called on him.
De La Cruz had spent five years putting down roots in the US after crossing nearly a dozen countries by car, foot, bus and boat. He and his wife entered through the US-Mexico border into Texas in August 2021 and filed immigration paperwork hoping to seek green cards under the Cuban Adjustment Act. He recalled calling his aunt in tears to tell her he had arrived.
Cubans have historically received preferential access to a pathway to US citizenship through that law, but they have been increasingly targeted under the second Trump administration. More than half a million Cubans who hold the same I-220A form as De La Cruz face uncertain status while courts weigh whether they qualify under the act.
The couple settled in South Florida near family. His wife worked as a cook, and he became a certified electrician, travelling as far as Kentucky and Nebraska. The earnings let him buy shoes and other essentials for his two daughters in Cuba, with a plan to eventually bring the teenagers and his wife's daughter to the US.
After the hearing, his wife and sister needed no explanation. They saw his face and understood he had chosen to return to Cuba. He was given 120 days to leave, while his sister and niece, who had entered the same way, were granted parole and then green cards. Friends urged him to try Mexico or Canada, but he was exhausted and unwilling to start over again. His mother had died while he was abroad, and he wanted to visit her grave.
A week before his flight, his wife revealed she had booked a seat beside him on the same plane. They landed in Havana, where the state of the airport bathroom told him how much had changed. The couple moved into his mother's house in Las Minas, a rural town about a 30-minute drive from the capital, and bought a solar-powered tricycle so he could resume work as a taxi driver amid a fuel shortage that has made public transport scarce.
Daily life remains difficult. Power cuts often last more than 24 hours, and charging the tricycle takes eight hours, costing him a day's work. He offers free rides to those who cannot pay. Food prices are high, water is scarce, and he has invested in storage tanks. He worries he may not see his grandmother, a legal US resident, again, as communications across Cuba deteriorate.
De La Cruz grew up in Las Minas hunting birds and fishing tilapia. At 16, he fell about 15 metres from a mango tree and fractured his spine, but recovered fully. He trained as an industrial equipment repairman, worked in a factory making PVC pipes, became a paramedic and then a taxi driver, earning only about $24 a month before leaving Cuba in late 2019.
He finds comfort in his rural surroundings, feeding chickens and roosters and caring for a four-month-old dog named Zeus. If given the choice, he says he would prefer to stay in Cuba, but only if conditions improve. "We are going through a bad time," he said. "In the end, it's the people who are hit the hardest."