In a dilapidated home on the outskirts of Havana, Heidy S\u00e1nchez shows off photos from a past life. <\/p>\n
She flips though images on her iPhone of visits to Sea World with her husband and 17-month-old daughter and the couple dressing up in Santa attire for Christmas. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if it was the American dream,\u201d S\u00e1nchez said. \u201cBut it was my dream, my family.\u201d <\/p>\n
That dream and family were ripped away in late April when S\u00e1nchez was deported from Florida to her native Cuba, even though both her daughter and husband are US citizens. <\/p>\n
S\u00e1nchez crossed into the US from Mexico in 2019 when the first Trump administration required asylum seekers to wait on the other side of the border for immigration appointments as part of the \u201cRemain in Mexico\u201d program. <\/p>\n
But Claudia said threats from cartels, which often target Cubans for kidnappings and extortion, prevented her from making her appointment. When she finally did cross the border again she told immigration agents her life was at risk in Mexico and she was allowed to stay. After nine months in immigration custody, she was released and able to join her family in Tampa. <\/p>\n
There she studied to become a nursing assistant, met her husband, a naturalized US citizen also from Cuba, and after several in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments, finally realized her dream of becoming a mom. <\/p>\n
S\u00e1nchez maintains she hardly fits the stereotype of the dangerous undocumented immigrants that the Trump administration says it is taking off US streets. <\/p>\n
\u201cI never had so much as a ticket,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Still, with the immigration hearing she had missed in 2019 and the changing political fortunes for Cuban immigrants who previously had residency in the US all but guaranteed, S\u00e1nchez\u2019s time in the US was running out. <\/p>\n
In April, S\u00e1nchez was contacted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that an appointment she had with officers was being moved up to the next day. Still, her attorneys told her it was likely a routine check-in. Instead, when she showed up for the appointment with her daughter Kailyn and an attorney, ICE agents told her she was being taken into custody and to hand over her daughter to relatives. <\/p>\n
\u201cCall the father to come get her, you are staying here,\u201d S\u00e1nchez said the agents informed her. <\/p>\n
In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security denied S\u00e1nchez and her attorney\u2019s accounts that she was not given the option to take her daughter with her. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe take our responsibility to protect children seriously and will continue to work with federal law enforcement to ensure that children are safe and protected,\u201d DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Trump administration is giving parents in this country illegally the opportunity to self deport and take control of their departure process with the potential ability to return the legal, right way and come back to live the American dream,\u201d the statement continued. <\/p>\n
S\u00e1nchez\u2019s attorney said they tried to stop her deportation by arguing that her removal would hurt her daughter, who she was breast feeding and has suffered seizures. But two days later, as S\u00e1nchez\u2019s attorneys were requesting a hearing in the case, she was already in the air on a deportation flight to Havana. <\/p>\n
Ca\u00f1izares said the manner in which S\u00e1nchez was repeatedly moved from different ICE facilities \u2013 making it impossible to see her client \u2013 before her fast-track deportation was \u201cshady.\u201d <\/p>\n
Now any possible legal avenue for S\u00e1nchez to return to the US could likely take years, Ca\u00f1izares said. S\u00e1nchez and her family are hoping that backlash to her story could lead to enough public support \u2013 particularly among the Cuban-American community that supported Trump in the 2024 presidential race \u2013 to enable a reunification. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Trump administration is ripping families apart for political games,\u201d US Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL) posted on X along with a photo of her meeting S\u00e1nchez\u2019s husband Carlos. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are pursuing every action to reunite this family and unfortunately are still waiting for a response from the White House to explain their illegal actions,\u201d she posted. <\/p>\n
As controversy swirls around her case, S\u00e1nchez is struggling to adapt to the dire situation in Cuba where daily power outages and increasing scarcities have made life even tougher on the island than when she left six years ago. <\/p>\n
She lives in a house with relatives where parts of the ceiling are caving in and electricity is cut for hours each day. The cell reception from the one state-run provider is so spotty in the area she either has to walk several blocks away or scale up to the roof of the house to call her husband and daughter. <\/p>\n
Her family is only a 90-minute flight away but for the immediate future remains agonizingly out of reach. <\/p>\n
\u201cI have to pump milk which should feed my daughter and throw it in the trash,\u201d S\u00e1nchez said. \u201cThat hurts me so much to do.\u201d <\/p>\n
She worries constantly about her young daughter who has trouble sleeping and has suffered convulsions again following her mother\u2019s deportation. <\/p>\n
\u201cHer father puts recordings of me singing to her so that she can sleep,\u201d S\u00e1nchez said. \u201cI am suffering but I know my girl is suffering more.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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