As a Cuban: Contradictions Between Immigration and the US Government Affects a Cuban Family

In Cuba, many daydream about the day they can reach "la Yuma", a nickname in Cuba for the United States. Cubans believe things in the United States are easy; they believe they can settle down, start a new life, and work hard to achieve what in Cuba is unreachable...Freedom. Unfortunately that is not the case either. Immigration issues and the US Government make it hard for a Cuban family to get ahead, this I say from personal experience.

I have heard people say Cubans have it easy compared to other migrants. My opinion is that they cannot be farther from the truth. Cubans dream with the chance to reach the United States and escape the tyranny that affects their country. They leave family, friends, and life as they knew it behind, never knowing when they will return...Some never do. Days in the ocean with little water, little food (in some cases none), scorching hot sunlight beating on their already tanned skin, and the nostalgia of everything they left behind, Cubans make their way to their dream. Some are caught before touching dry land, some die on the way, and some are lucky enough to make it into the United States...or is it unlucky?

My husband took that route some seven year ago. He left his mother and 2 brothers behind, with hopes of providing for them from a distance. He traveled seven days and eight nights with 7 other Cubans aboard a boat made for 5 people. When he touched American soil, he felt he had reached his dream...Today; his opinion is quite the opposite. He has not seen his family in almost 8 long years, not in person or by photo. He has learned to conform with a 15 minute monthly phone call....sometimes even every few months.

After years of working and trying to get ahead, he finally saved up enough money for his papers. He applied for his green-card or "Residencia", as we Cubans know it. It took a year of going to immigration appointments, getting fingerprints done, pulling out his background records, and paying more money before he got his final appointment. In the appointment they took away his work permit and told him he would receive his "residencia" in a month by mail as long as his background was clean. Imagine our joy! His background was squeaky clean, so no problem there. Finally, he would be at-least partly legal in the land of his dreams!! Nothing could have prepared us for what was to come.

After anxiously awaiting the final letter from Immigration with the enclosed Green-card for a month, it came in the mail. My husband opened the letter like a child opens a gift on Christmas. There was nothing! Where was his "Residencia"? Well, I opened the letter and read it aloud: "Your case has been administratively closed....You are not eligible for residency because of a deportation status on your case....you are not authorized to work in the United States." We were shocked! A year of paying for paperwork, going to appointments, and they just now decide to tell us my husband has a deportation order?!?

We investigated with immigration, and as it turns out, my husband has a deportation order since he arrived into the United States. Apparently he "missed" an appointment which he never received. Mind you, until this point my husband had a steady, well-paying job and I was a homemaker and full-time mommy to my 3 children (2 being from prior matrimony and my youngest being my husband's). Have you heard the saying, "when it rains, it pores"? Well, in this part of the country I haven't seen a sunny day since then.

A small amount of time after that, my husband lost his job. Since Immigration took away his employment authorization card, he had no way to get a decent job. We didn't have enough contacts to get him an "under the table" employment either so our hands were tied. I had to get a job, he had to stay with the kids, and things began to go downhill from there.

At the time we were living in a 3 bedroom house, paying a $1,200 mortgage, not to mention light, water, car payments, gas and insurance, etc. Bills began to back up and become delinquent, on various occasions our family had to lend us money to reconnect the light, water, etc. This lack of money caused us to lose the house and move to my mom's house a few months later. We ran across Florida from west to east in 2 5 hour drives to move all our stuff with the last $400.00 we had to our name. We lost our car 3 days later. Here we are, new city, no jobs, no money, no car, 3 kids, and nothing to do about it. My mom fixed up a poor condition '92 Ford Probe for us to get from point A to point B. Because of that I finally got a job. However, more trouble was to come.

I forgot to mention my husband has a child from a prior marriage. Throughout our ordeal, it is obvious that we did not have the money for his child support payments. He called the child support department and explained his employment situation because of his immigration issues, they responded by saying, "That is not our problem....if the child support is not paid; you risk driver's license suspension and arrest warrant".

Recently, child support has still not been paid, his license has been suspended, and the cost for an attorney to "try" to take the deportation off his record is $3,500. Since he cannot work, our life is hard. I am going to school on-line, working at home in two different jobs and working full time as well. I am the only one able to work, trying to maintain a house, 2 adults and 3 kids on minimum income. Because of that we still can't get any money together for his immigration issues. The kids suffer as well. Do you know what its like to have a child cry because all their classmates' moms went to the mother's day party and their mom couldn't go because you have to work and can not afford to take a day off? Or having your child ask you for $10.00 for a fun field trip everyone is going to and have to keep her home with some excuse so that she will not feel embarrassed for not having the money to go?

It is my opinion that the US Government needs to have more communication and work out certain issues with Immigration. They contradict themselves in such a way that it makes it hard to get ahead. There are times when my husband believes he would be better off in Cuba, with the tyranny of a dictator as is Fidel Castro. However, he cannot even do that because as of now, even though he has a deportation order, deportation to Cuba is unforeseeable. Immigration tells him he cannot work, yet he has to pay child support. He has no money to pay child support, so the US Government takes away his license. They are forcing him to work "illegally" to pay his child support, but with no license he can't get to a job....Do you see something wrong here. He is trapped in what should have been his dream come true and it is now nothing short of a nightmare.

The Us Government wants you pay your taxes....Don't pay and you're screwed. Work illegally and you're screwed. Don't pay child support and you're screwed. But what do they expect? It is situations like this that causes people to work illegally; lie cheat and steal to stay alive. The situations people go through to survive is difficult. What can we do when we want to "get ahead" and there is nothing to look ahead to?