World Refugee Day 2025
We will be celebrating World Refugee Day 2025 on June 20th in Pocatello and other communities around Idaho and the world, a day to “honor the strength and courage of people’’ forced to flee their homelands. There will be music, dancing and delicious food from the over 20 countries representing our local, Idaho-based refugees and immigrants.
What a stark contrast that idea is, with what is currently happening in the US with respect to refugees, immigrants and visitors to our country. On May 30, 2025 the Supreme Court allowed the current Trump administration to end the humanitarian program put in place under President Biden that gave temporary protected status (TPS) to nearly 500,000 individuals from Haiti, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba. Individuals who currently have legal, temporary protected status under this program are now being considered for deportation.
As a refugee, what does it mean to be deported back to one of these countries? Each place has a unique constellation of threats that have made people desperate to leave their homes; it is an agonizing choice. It can also be incredibly dangerous. For this piece, I will focus on ‘remigration’ to Cuba, as it is the situation I’m most familiar with.
The things that we take for granted in the US are unobtainable for most working-class Cubans. If you go to a public hospital, once the great pride and joy of Cuba, these days you will find a place that is empty of everything except for desperate patients. There are no medications, no supplies, no gloves. A diagnosis of diabetes, high blood pressure or cancer is essentially a death sentence; there are no medications or other treatment modalities available to most Cubans.
Minor accidents can become life threatening without antibiotics or even wound sanitizing materials. You can’t buy most of these things, except maybe on the black market for exorbitant prices. There are no over the counter medications and even toilet paper is in short supply; you can’t even get a Motrin for arthritis pain. While there are a few outside non-governmental organizations that provide some specialized medical care, it is far less than is needed.
People live in decaying buildings that are crowded, hot and dangerous. Recently, the Cuban government relaxed rules about private businesses so now, in front of these multi-family living spaces, people sell tiny bits of everyday things, broken forks, nails, bits of metal. There are few jobs, the economy is broken. Decades of the US blockade and mismanagement in the Cuban government has destroyed the agricultural sector, international trade and the development of new economic programs. Tourism is vastly decreased, even from a few years ago.
Doctors, nurses, educators, lawyers and engineers have largely left Cuba; it is a country that is emptying out. 738,680 Cubans with legal immigration visas came to the US between October 2021 and April 2024 according to demographer Juan Carlos Albizu-Campos as reported the Spanish newspaper, El Pais. Cuba currently has 11 million people, a number that is rapidly shrinking.
Most immigrants send money back to Cuba, they are a lifeline for those left behind. Returning to Cuba will devastate their economic welfare and that of their extended families.
While there is relatively little violent crime now, with the decimation of the police force and legal system Cuba could face a future that looks a lot more like that of Haiti with its devastating social upheaval.
A young Cuban professional who recently immigrated to Spain commented to me that the lack of freedom of expression in Cuba is one of the top reasons why she left the island. Political conformity is expected in Cuba and those who dissent are dealt with in a harsh manner. There is little hope for a better future, there is just grim existence dealing with a broken system.
One of the women who worked in the bed and breakfast where I stayed on a recent educational trip to Cuba told me about her life on a nearby farm. In rural areas, access to electricity, food and water are even more limited than in the city of Havana. She said that her family only has electricity a couple hours a day and sometimes not at all. I left her my solar powered camping lamp when I departed, a tiny gesture against the rolling blackouts that are increasingly common across the country both rural and urban. The electrical grid is in shambles.
For Cubans, who have risked everything to move to the US to seek a new future, to be deported from the United States will be devasting. As we celebrate World Refugee Day let’s remember how important it is to provide a safe refuge for those who come to our shores.