Tampa Mom Deported to Cuba, Forced Apart from 1-Year-Old and U.S. Husband

A Cuban woman who was residing in Tampa and who had arrived in the United States in 2019 and who is married to a resident of the United States was unexpectedly detained by immigration authorities and deported to Cuba on Thursday. She was forced to leave behind her child, who was one year old at the time.

Her husband, Carlos Yuniel Valle, told the Miami Herald that Heidy Sánchez, 44, a resident of Hillsborough County, was one of the 82 Cuban migrants who were sent back to Cuba aboard a plane that took off from Miami on Thursday morning. In a phone chat on Friday, he stated that their young daughter, who was still breastfeeding and had persistent health difficulties, was being taken to the hospital by her grandmother because her deportation had been so unexpected and unpleasant for her.

According to Valle, “The baby is in a state of distress and does not want to eat.” In reference to his wife’s distress over being separated from her daughter, he said, “Imagine, they ripped the child from her mother’s arms at the immigration office; the cries of that woman in there could be heard back in Cuba.” He was referring to the fact that his wife was extremely upset over the situation.

Sánchez was still dressed in the clothes she had been given in the detention center when her husband met her on a video call on Thursday from the location in Havana where she is currently staying. Cubans are currently suffering with significant shortages of food and supplies, as well as electricity blackouts that may last for several days. Her sudden return to the island comes at a time when Cubans are experiencing these issues. She does not have a residence at that location.

For the purpose of sending her a package that contains toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, sanitary pads, and clothes, her husband remarked, “I am here at the store trying to buy things so that I can send her a package.”

Sánchez was held at her check-in appointment with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a Tampa office on Tuesday, which marked the beginning of their horror of being separated from their friends and family. The following day, Valle uploaded a video on Facebook in which he begged for assistance in preventing the deportation of his wife. In the video, he was seen cradling their daughter and shedding tears during his plea. According to him, the last-ditch attempts made by Sánchez’s attorney and Tampa United States Representative Kathy Castor to avoid her imminent deportation were completely ineffective.

The attorney representing her, Claudia Cañizares, who is based in Miami, stated that they made every effort to remove her from the situation. This included not divulging the location where her client was being kept. She stated that the reason ICE officials were aware that Sanchez had a daughter who was one year old was because the child had attended the appointment with her.

According to Cañizares, during the period of less than three days that elapsed between Sánchez’s detention and her deportation to the island, she and her staff initiated a frantic effort to make contact with her and submit an application for a stay of removal. This order would have temporarily prevented the Department of Homeland Security from deporting Sánchez on humanitarian grounds.

However, they were unable to locate her at any of the ICE detention facilities in Broward or Miami, despite their suspicions that she had been relocated to Miami. With the intention of preventing her transfer, Cañizares made a final effort to visit Miami International Airport on Thursday morning. This was due to the fact that Sánchez had been identified in a locator system for detained migrants as being under the custody of the United States Customs and Border Protection. At the airport, she was informed by officials that she was not present. It was reported that a female officer who picked up her call refused to speak with her and then hung up the phone when she attempted to get in touch with a supervisor at a facility that assists in the coordination of deportations across different DHS offices.

At approximately nine o’clock in the morning, Cañizares stated that a lawyer from her business attempted to enter the stay of removal order on behalf of Sánchez at an ICE office located in Miramar. However, officials at the agency blocked her from doing so, citing the fact that Sánchez had already been deported previously. Around 10:50 in the morning, they finally gave in to the lawyer’s persistence and accepted the application.

However, Cañizares expressed her belief that her client had entered a plane at approximately 10 o’clock in the morning.

A spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) stated that he was going to begin obtaining information regarding the case; however, he was unable to immediately respond to a request for comment. Castor’s office was unable to share specifics on the issue due to concerns over privacy, according to a member of Castor’s staff. However, the staff member stated that the congresswoman has been providing assistance to the family and will continue to do so.

Migration from Cuba is now a new reality.

Sánchez, like many other Cubans who are currently residing in the United States with an immigration document known as I-220B, was subject to a deportation order; yet, he was permitted to continue living in the nation during the past several years. This is due to the fact that the Cuban government has only returned a small number of deportees in recent years. Sanchez had no criminal past, according to the results of a search conducted by the Herald in Florida’s official storehouse for criminal records. As a result, her case did not fall within the deportation priorities established by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden.

That has seen a rapid transformation since January.

During the time when her removal is taking place, the administration of President Trump is making a concerted effort to deport millions of migrants back to their home countries or to third nations with questionable human rights records, such as El Salvador or Cuba in this particular instance. This includes migrants who entered the United States legally. In 2023, under the leadership of President Joe Biden, deportation flights to the communist-ruled island were reinstated. This occurred in the midst of an unprecedented number of Cubans fleeing poverty and political repression.

Officials from Cuba have stated that the Cuban government has agreed to accept a flight on a monthly basis since that time. It was reported in a brief notice that was published in Cuban state media that the deportation flight that took place on Thursday was the fourth flight since the beginning of the year. The memo stated that there were 74 males and eight women on the flight that took place on Thursday. Sánchez was there.

Sánchez’s story is also illustrative of the plight of Cuban migrants, who, over the course of the past few years, have witnessed the gradual removal of policies that were once advantageous to people who were fleeing communism by both Democratic and Republican presidents.

In 2019, Sánchez landed in the United States, two years after former President Barack Obama had abolished a provision known as “wet-foot dry-foot,” which was a regulation that granted Cubans automatic parole. Remain in Mexico was a new policy that was adopted by the first administration of President Trump in 2019. This policy required migrants to remain in Mexico until they were able to present their asylum case in front of a judge from the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

According to her husband, she was unable to attend her second hearing because of the turmoil and violence that occurred on the Mexican side of the border. Thousands of migrants were swarming into small border communities, many of which were controlled by drug cartels. When she came once more to beg for admittance at a lawful border crossing, she was held by United States immigration officials, according to her attorney. She was unaware that a judge had issued an order for her removal since she had failed to appear at the hearing.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) eventually released her with a document known as an I-220B, which mandates periodic check-ins with ICE officials. She had been jailed for nine months, but because it was difficult to deport migrants back to Cuba, ICE ultimately freed her. The family did not believe that their American dream was in danger because she had married Valle, who was a citizen of the United States, in the year 2021.

Valle, who moved to the United States in 2006 from San José, a town located close to Havana, mentioned that his wife had been studying to earn a license to work as a home health aide. Valle is the owner of a small landscaping company. According to him, they used their funds to pay for the in vitro fertilization procedure, which was both expensive and exceedingly challenging, so that they could have their daughter.

Valle’s Facebook profile, in which he routinely shares photographs of family outings and reunions with relatives to celebrate American holidays with a pork roast, indicates that they have lately entered the realm of homeownership.

Cañizares, the attorney, has expressed her intention to persist in her efforts to secure Sánchez’s return to the United States. She is hopeful that a humanitarian parole, which would allow her to be reunited with her family, could be granted. According to the testimony of the attorney, the youngster had been born preterm and had just begun experiencing seizures.

On the other hand, Valle is concerned that it might be years before his family is reunited. It was stated by him that all he wants is for his wife to be given the ability to proceed with the process of legalizing her gender identity. During this interim period, they may still be confronted with an additional impending danger: there are plans being discussed by officials of the government and members of Congress to prohibit all travel to and from the island, with no exceptions. This might make it even more challenging for them to join together again.

Recounting how Sanchez burst into tears when she saw her daughter on the video chat on Thursday morning, he added, “It’s a very sad thing.” Sanchez had been crying when she saw her daughter. Is it appropriate to separate a mother from her child, who is only one year old, while she is in the midst of a legal proceeding? Is this country a place where human rights are respected?