Florida's Cubans, once a protected class, face new immigration threats

[Sancho]

https://www.tampabay.com/news/2025/04/07/floridas-cubans-once-protected-class-face-new-immigration-threats/

For years, Cubans who arrived in the United States were treated differently from other immigrants.

Many were quickly allowed to stay. They obtained work permits and became residents without a long wait. They even found a path to citizenship more easily than others. Credit the special treatment to a holdover from the Cold War, when U.S. foreign policy sought the hearts and minds of Cubans living under Fidel Castro.

Over the past decade, that’s changed. What was once an open embrace of their arrivals has become far more complicated for Cubans, putting them in the same shoes as other migrants.

Last month the U.S. Department of Homeland Security revoked the status of 532,000 people who arrived on temporary humanitarian permits from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. They will lose their status on April 24.