Havana/A new flight with Cubans deported from the United States arrived this Thursday in Havana, although, unlike previous occasions, the Ministry of the Interior has not reported on the operation nor has it specified how many people were returned to the Island.
The plane, an Airbus A319 from the American company GlobalX identified with the number GXA6196, left on the morning of September 24 from Alexandria International Airport, in Louisiana, and landed around noon at José Martí. The public air tracking records confirm the route.
Alexandria is one of the airports regularly used in deportation operations by US immigration authorities, while GlobalX has repeatedly participated in these flights. The arrival of the device had aroused suspicions since Thursday, although at that time no organization in Cuba or the United States had confirmed that it was transporting deportees.
“Finally, our 22-year-old boy was deported to Cuba and is now with his family”
The testimonies subsequently published on Facebook allow, however, to establish that Cubans returned from the United States traveled on the plane.
A woman identified as Yaite Lazo explained that her son had been deported to Cuba after spending ten months in immigration custody. “Finally, our 22-year-old boy was deported to Cuba and is now with the family,” he wrote.
The woman assured that the young man had a valid work permit, driver’s license and plans to continue his university studies. “It is still difficult for us to understand why he had to remain deprived of his freedom for 10 months before he finally ended up being deported to Cuba,” he lamented.
The family decided not to release photographs of the young man to protect his privacy and accompanied the publication with the hashtag #I220A, commonly used by Cubans who entered the United States and received that immigration document.
“It is hard and painful to see those traces of pain impregnated on the faces of many of the deportees”
Another user, Reinier Rodríguez Rivas, stated in the comments of the same publication that he was present, “due to his work,” during the arrival of the plane. “It is hard and painful to see those traces of pain impregnated on the faces of many of the deportees,” wrote Rodríguez, who claimed to have seen familiar people and spoken with some of the new arrivals.
In another facebook posta user identified as Oslady Batista commented that her nephew was traveling on that plane. According to his testimony, the young man had been waiting for three years to obtain residency in the United States, he had a work permit and Social Security number and, despite this, he was deported. Batista also stated that ICE did not allow him access to a lawyer and that his nephew did not even sign the deportation order.
Until this Sunday, the Ministry of the Interior had not published information about the operation. The silence contrasts with the practice followed on previous flights, when the organization has disclosed the number of returnees, their distribution by sex and the accumulated number of operations carried out during the year.
In the previous confirmed flightOn August 21, the United States returned 127 people to Cuba, 113 men and 14 women. Interior then reported that two of them were transferred to investigative bodies for their alleged connection with crimes committed before leaving the Island. According to official data, with that operation there were 882 people returned to Cuba during 2026 from different countries.
The Ministry usually takes advantage of these statements to reiterate its commitment to “regular, safe and orderly” migration.
The Cuban authorities indicated on that occasion that the return was carried out “in compliance with the bilateral migration agreements” between Havana and Washington. The Ministry usually takes advantage of these statements to reiterate its commitment to “regular, safe and orderly” migration.
This time, however, there has been no communication, at least publicly, or an explanation as to the reasons for the absence of information.
The new flight also occurs at a time when Donald Trump’s Administration has intensified the expulsions of immigrants and has also resorted to sending foreigners, including Cubans, to third countries. In August, for example, citizens of Cuba were among the first migrants sent to Liberia by the United States.
The lack of official data leaves several questions open for now: how many Cubans traveled on Thursday’s flight, what their immigration status was, what detention centers they came from and why the Ministry of the Interior, which has regularly reported on similar operations, has not announced this arrival.
