Cubans who can’t be deported could end up detained in U.S.

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Tuesday, 06.21.11
Cubans who can’t be deported could end up detained in U.S.
.Cubans with deportation orders are alarmed about a bill in Congress that immigrant rights activists say could lead to indefinite detentions.

By ALFONSO CHARDY
[e-mail]

Julio Muñoz, who arrived during the Mariel boatlift in 1980, spent more time in immigration detention than in prison over drug convictions.

But he finally was freed when the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005 ruled that Mariel convicts could not be held in detention indefinitely just because they cannot be deported to Cuba.

Now Muñoz, like many other Cubans with deportation orders, has grown alarmed about a new bill recently introduced in the U.S. Congress that immigrant rights activists say could enable immigration authorities to re-detain indefinitely Cubans with criminal records who cannot be returned home.

“If they detain me again until I can be deported, I’d rather kill myself,” said Muñoz, voicing a sentiment echoed by other Mariel refugees interviewed at Camillus Health Concern, a clinic for the homeless and people of low-income near downtown Miami.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/06/11/2278085/cubans-who-cant-be-deported-could.html