For Trump-Supporting Cubans in Florida, Growing ‘Unease’

Cubans in Florida who once believed they were largely protected from U.S. deportation policies are increasingly finding that those protections have disappeared. Reporting by The New York Times shows that the Trump administration has significantly increased deportations to Cuba, removing more than 1,600 people in 2025 alone—roughly double the total from the previous year and more than under any of President Trump’s three most recent predecessors.

Many deportations are occurring swiftly and with little warning. Individuals such as Heidy Sanchez, a home health aide in Tampa, have been detained during routine ICE check-ins and sent back to Cuba, despite having lived in the United States for decades and having established families and careers.

The changes represent a sharp departure from long-standing policies that once gave Cubans special consideration due to Cold War-era politics. Detention centers in remote parts of Florida have filled up, while legal options—including visas and family reunification programs—have been reduced or eliminated. A University of Miami historian who specializes in Cuban studies says there is “a growing amount of unease” within the Cuban-American community, which has traditionally leaned Republican. Older exiles who benefited from more generous policies are now watching newer arrivals face detention and deportation.

That anxiety was already evident last summer, when El País interviewed Cuban residents across Florida. A manicurist whose husband was facing deportation said, “The same Cubans who have been here for years don’t realize that Trump acts the same way Fidel Castro did.” A 63-year-old Cuban-American barber remarked, “Cubans have never known what a democracy is. They need a strong man to tell them what to do.” Another resident of West Palm Beach, 59, described seeing one son imprisoned in Cuba for political reasons and another detained by ICE in the U.S., saying she no longer wished to pursue American citizenship. “I never imagined that, after leaving Cuba, I would experience what we’re experiencing here,” she said.

NBC News has also reported on the political strain these policies have created, particularly after the administration moved last year to roll back temporary legal protections for thousands of Cubans. Republican lawmakers of Cuban descent now find themselves in a difficult position—attempting to express concern over enforcement actions while continuing to support the GOP and criticizing past Democratic administrations on immigration. Among the most prominent Cuban Americans in the region is Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who lives near Miami.

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