LAS MINAS, Cuba (AP) — Liexer De La Cruz took a deep breath as he entered a federal courtroom in Miami, where life as he knew it would end.
It was Jan. 9, and he thought he was attending a routine immigration hearing — not deciding on the rest of his life in just seconds, having to choose between returning to Cuba or risking deportation at any moment. He didn't have a chance to confer with his wife and sister who were waiting outside.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
De La Cruz had spent five years putting down roots in the United States after crossing almost a dozen countries by car, foot, bus and boat. He thought of what he and his wife had accomplished after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border into Texas in August 2021, obtaining the immigration forms in hopes of requesting green cards via the Cuban Adjustment Act.
“The first thing I did was call my aunt and I told her, ‘I’m in the United States. I’m in the United States.’ And we began to cry,” he recalled.
Cubans have historically received preferential access to a pathway to U.S. citizenship via the Cuban Adjustment Act, but they have been increasingly targeted under the second Trump administration.
More than half a million Cubans who received the same I-220A form as De La Cruz face an uncertain status as courts debate whether they meet the act's qualifications, according to a ReliefWeb report.
De La Cruz and his wife settled in South Florida near his family; she worked as a cook and he became a certified electrician, traveling as far as Kentucky and Nebraska, making enough money to buy shoes and other essentials for his two daughters in Cuba.
The plan was to eventually bring the girls and his wife’s daughter, all teenagers, to the U.S. so they could live comfortably with power, water and food.
The judge interrupted the Cuban man’s thoughts. De La Cruz picked his fate.
There was no need to tell his wife and sister what had happened in the courtroom. They saw his face and knew — he had decided to return to Cuba.
De La Cruz grew up in the rural town of Las Minas, about a 30-minute drive from the heart of Havana, the Cuban capital.
He spent his childhood hunting birds, fishing tilapia and climbing trees. At 16, he fell some 15 meters (50 feet) from a mango tree, fracturing his spine.
De La Cruz fully recovered. He studied to become an industrial equipment repairman but got a factory job making PVC pipes in hopes of making more money. He later became a paramedic and loved that job but earned only $24 a month, so he became a taxi driver.
At 34, frustrated by the lack of a decent salary and deteriorating living conditions, including declining healthcare and long lines for gasoline, De La Cruz began to think about leaving Cuba.
“I was becoming disillusioned,” he said. “Every Cuban … from the moment they’re born, is thinking about going to the United States. ... If you go there with a positive mindset, focused on getting ahead and improving yourself, you’ll achieve many good things.”
In late 2019, De La Cruz and his wife left Cuba, first trying to make a life in Suriname, Guyana and Brazil. But after failing to secure stable jobs or residency, the couple left for the U.S. in May 2021.
It was a three-month odyssey that De La Cruz said included walking through the Darien Gap in Colombia and Panama: “a very dangerous jungle where many people die.”
They saw a skeleton and the body of a Cuban woman who had recently died and made the news. Someone had covered her with leaves.
“I won’t forget that,” he said.
De La Cruz did not live long enough in the U.S. to achieve his dream: establish his own handyman business.
He was given 120 days to leave the U.S., while his sister and niece, who had entered the U.S. the same way as De La Cruz and his wife, were awarded parole and then green cards.
As the deadline neared, his friends urged him to move to Mexico or Canada. But De La Cruz was tired. He did not want to start from scratch again.
“I already missed my city so much, I couldn’t take it anymore,” he said. “My mother died while I was (in the U.S.), and I wanted to go to the cemetery.”
His wife told him she would stay in the U.S. and work to keep him afloat in Cuba.
But a week before his flight to Cuba, she could no longer keep her secret: “I booked a ticket for the same day as you, on the same flight as you, and in the seat next to you.”
His eyes watered as he recalled the moment.
Once they landed in Havana, De La Cruz realized things were bad when he saw the state of the airport bathroom. It was clean, but light was scarce and the paint was peeling.
The couple settled in his mother's house in Las Minas. They bought a solar-powered tricycle and he resumed his job as a taxi driver. He hoped to make money that way as a fuel shortage stemming from a U.S. energy embargo made public transportation scarce. Many Cubans rely on tricycles to get around.
But power goes out daily, often for more than 24 hours, and De La Cruz often has to use the solar panel to charge the tricycle. It takes eight hours to fully charge, so he misses a day of work.
He also offers free rides to those who can’t afford them. “I don’t like leaving anyone behind,” he said.
His greatest struggle is finding enough food for his family. “The food here is too expensive, the prices very high,” he said.
He also invested in water storage tanks amid severe water shortages.
But he worries he won’t see his grandmother again. She lives in the U.S. as a legal resident. They talk by phone, but it’s not often because communications across Cuba are crumbling.
As life grinds on, De La Cruz finds solace in the greenery of his rural town. Now that they have their own home, they finally got a dog: a 4-month-old mutt named Zeus.
He feels at peace feeding the chickens and roosters in the yard. “That takes away a lot of stress,” he said.
His biggest concern in the U.S. was losing his job. In Cuba, he worries about the lack of water and power, dwindling fuel supplies, his meager salary, the lack of public transportation and surging food prices.
If given a choice, he'd like to stay in Cuba — but only if things change.
“We are going through a bad time,” he said. “In the end, it’s the people who are hit the hardest.”
