U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has about a dozen Cubans in custody who failed an initial asylum screening at the border, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the diplomatic situation. The US agency is waiting until it has enough Cuban deportees to fill a plane before sending one to Havana, they said. A third source familiar with the matter said there was no new formal agreement on regular deportation flights, but that Cuba had agreed to accept occasional groups of deportees. Regular deportations of Cubans have stopped during the COVID-19 pandemic, although the United States has continued to deport a small number of Cubans via commercial airlines, a separate US official told Reuters. The US State Department, the White House and ICE did not immediately respond to requests for comment. About 1,500 Cubans were removed in fiscal year 2020, which began on Oct. 1, 2019, the year regular deportation flights stopped, according to data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The resumption of ICE deportation flights to Cuba could send a symbolic message to would-be immigrants who typically fly to Central America and travel north to the border. A record 220,000 Cubans were caught at the US-Mexico border in fiscal year 2022, which ended Sept. 30. The vast majority were released to the United States to continue their immigration cases. Communist Cuba is bound by previous immigration agreements to accept its nationals returned by the United States. The most recent bilateral agreement was reached in January 2017 shortly before then-President Barack Obama left office. The US Coast Guard has continued to turn in migrants caught at sea and has repatriated more than 5,600 migrants so far this year, according to official Cuban media. Top US immigration officials visited Havana this week – the highest-level visit to the US since the historic approach under former President Obama – as the immigration crisis worsens. US authorities made more than 2.2 million immigration apprehensions at the US-Mexico border in fiscal year 2022, more than any other year. Of those, about 1 million were quickly deported to Mexico or other countries under a pandemic-era order known as Title 42. But just 2 percent of Cubans apprehended at the border were deported in fiscal year 2022. Reporting by Matt Spetalnick and Ted Hesson in Washington. Edited by Mica Rosenberg and Sandra Maler Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
