Video shows how people detained at Krome Detention Center in Southwest Miami-Dade on Thursday held a protest in the wake of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts.
Video showed people detained at Krome Detention Center in southwest Miami-Dade holding a protest Thursday in the wake of President Donald Trump's mass deportation efforts.
Chopper6 flew over the courtyard of the detention center as dozens of detainees in white spelled out "SOS" with their bodies.
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WATCH HEREThey kneeled, clasped their hands together in a gesture of apparent supplication and some waved their shirts in the air. Using towels they later spelled out "CUBA."
A relative of one of the Cuban detainees told NBC6 that they were asking not to be sent to detention centers in Texas and eventually deported.
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Amid record arrivals of migrants from the Caribbean island, Trump in March revoked temporary humanitarian parole for about 300,000 Cubans. Many have been detained ahead of possible deportation.
Among those facing deportation is a pro-Trump Cuban rapper behind a hit song “Patria y Vida” — “Homeland and Life” — that became the unofficial anthem of anti-communist protests on the island in 2021 and drew praise from the likes of then Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, now Secretary of State. Eliéxer Márquez, who raps under the name El Funky, said he received notice in May that he had 30 days to leave the U.S.
And in Tampa, a Cuban-born woman who is the mother of a 1-year-old girl and the wife of a U.S. citizen was detained at a scheduled check-in appointment at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office, her lawyer said in April.
Heidy Sánchez was held without any communication and flown to Cuba two days later. She was still breastfeeding her daughter, who suffers from seizures, her lawyer said.
While Trump’s mass deportation pledge has frightened migrants from many nations, it has come as something of a shock to the 2.4 million Cuban-Americans, who strongly backed the Republican twice and have long enjoyed a place of privilege in the U.S. immigration system.
Thanks to Cold War laws aimed at removing Fidel Castro, Cuban migrants for many decades enjoyed almost automatic refugee status in the U.S. and could obtain green cards a year after entry, unlike migrants from virtually every other country.
Support for Trump among likely Cuban-American voters in Miami was at an all-time high on the eve of last year’s election, according to a poll by Florida International University, which has been tracking the Cuban-American community since 1991. Trump rarely mentions Cubans in his attacks on migrant targets including Venezuelans and Haitians. That has given many Cubans hope that they will remain immune to immigration enforcement actions.
Meanwhile, family members of detainees being held at Krome Detention Center have spoken out about the alleged harsh conditions of the facility.
Reports have poured in about a lack of water and food, unsanitary confinement and medical neglect. In April, the Trump administration shut down three Department of Homeland Security oversight offices charged with investigating such claims.
