Man freed from prison faces possible deportation to Cuba


Associated Press

DENVER

The detention of a Cuban immigrant set to rejoin his family after he was mistakenly released from prison, then put back, has raised questions about whether more people from the island nation will be deported from the United States now that relations between the two countries have thawed.

The U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement took custody of Rene Lima-Marin, 38, Wednesday after a judge ordered him to be released from state prison in an armed-robbery case.

The agency said Thursday it is working to deport him to the country he left as a toddler along with thousands of other Cubans in 1980 in what became known as the Mariel boat lift.

But it’s not clear whether Lima-Marin, who was ordered deported while in prison, will be returned there since the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has little power over cases of deportation of Cuban nationals.

Under a 1984 agreement, Cuba agreed to take back 2,746 of their citizens who came to the United States as part of the boat lift.

Cubans convicted after then, such as Lima-Marin, are not automatically accepted by Cuba because of that deal.

Officials say more than 36,000 Cubans are facing orders of deportation for conviction of crimes or immigration violations. About 600 are in custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to statistics by the agency.

Seventeen have been deported since October, and 123 have been deported since October 2014, less than three months before President Barack Obama announced the beginning of normalization of relations with Cuba.

It’s not clear whether these cases are part of the previously agreed-upon list.

People who cannot be deported have been allowed to remain and live freely in the United States but check in regularly with immigration officials.