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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Ruaridh Nicoll in Havana and Miami

‘It’s been brutal’: Cubans caught in crosshairs of Trump’s deportation push

people hold signs that read 'Heidy Sanchez Tejeda bring her home'
Heidy Sánchez’s husband, Carlos Valle, at a vigil in support of mothers separated from their children due to deportation, in Tampa, Florida, on 10 May 2025. Photograph: Octavio Jones/AFP via Getty Images

When Rosaly Estévez “self-deported” from Miami to Havana last November, US immigration officers bid farewell by removing her ankle monitor. The 32-year-old had been told she was about to be detained, so she left with her three-year-old son, Dylan, a US citizen.

Heidy Sánchez, 43, wasn’t given a choice. She was forcibly removed from Florida last April but, worrying about Cuba’s failing healthcare system, she left her two-year-old daughter, Kaylin, behind with her American husband, Carlos.

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