{"id":321853,"date":"2025-04-27T11:20:14","date_gmt":"2025-04-27T15:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=321853"},"modified":"2025-04-29T15:50:42","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T19:50:42","slug":"joe-garcia-justice-implies-the-future-revenge-doesnt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba-usa\/joe-garcia-justice-implies-the-future-revenge-doesnt\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Garc\u00eda: \u201cJustice implies the future. Revenge doesn\u2019t\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

We arranged to meet via video call. Before I <\/span>entered<\/span><\/i> the virtual meeting, during the few minutes I waited, I noticed the profile picture of lawyer, businessman, and former congressman Joe Garc\u00eda (Miami Beach, 1963), with whom I was going to speak for the second time in recent weeks, interested in the impact of <\/span>Trump\u2019s policies on Cubans<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

I had time to decide that that photo would be the starting point for the interview. In the image, Garc\u00eda appears greeting <\/span>Barack Obama<\/a>, the architect of the brief thaw between Cuba and the United States that began in late 2014 and ended in January 2017 with the arrival of the Trump-Pence administration to the White House.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne of many,\u201d he tells me when I mention that his photo, so political, caught my attention.<\/span><\/p>\n

We are living in a very different time from that attempt at normalization of relations between the two countries, and I can\u2019t help but begin the dialogue by drawing on those memories already shrouded in nostalgia.<\/span><\/p>\n

That is probably the most poignant and everyday feeling among those of us who suffer from physical distance from Cuba. But in Miami, more than anywhere else, nostalgia for Cuba is at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Sometimes it manifests itself through sweet reminiscences; other times, through passionate confrontations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nostalgia mixed with frustration, uprooting, loss\u2026 feelings fueled by the confrontational rhetoric spread by some leaders, the media, and social media influencers \u2014 not only toward the Havana government, but also directed at members of the community \u2014 fuel the growing political radicalization in the Cuban enclave.<\/span><\/p>\n

With so much power\u2026<\/b><\/h3>\n

Joe Garc\u00eda was the first Cuban-American Democrat to represent Florida in Congress, between 2013 and 2015. Today, Washington has a Secretary of State and three Republican congresspeople of Cuban origin. However, this is probably the most unsettling time for the community, which sees its past privileges eroded and insecurity about its immigration status growing.<\/span><\/p>\n

More than <\/span>half a million Cubans<\/span><\/a> are at risk of deportation. Of these, some 110,000 who entered under the Humanitarian Parole Program between 2023 and 2024 could lose their right to remain in the United States. For now, <\/span>judge Indira Talwani has halted the Trump administration\u2019s injunction<\/span><\/a>. But it is likely that the government will appeal to the Supreme Court, where it could achieve a victory.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cubans who entered the country <\/span>with I-220A and I-220B are also in legal limbo<\/span><\/a> and could face deportation. Several people <\/span>have been arrested<\/span><\/a> in recent weeks by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). One of the most recent cases is that of Heydi S\u00e1nchez Tejeda, who, after five years in the United States, attended an appointment with ICE last Tuesday and ended up arrested and <\/span>deported to Cuba<\/a>. Her husband, Carlos Yuniel Valle, <\/span>denounced the case in tears, holding their young daughter in his arms<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

For his part, Congressman <\/span>Carlos Gim\u00e9nez has proposed suspending travel and remittances<\/span><\/a> to Cuba and has submitted to the federal government <\/span>a list of Cubans accused of being communist \u201cagents,\u201d \u201crepressors,\u201d and \u201cinfiltrators.\u201d<\/span><\/a> Law enforcement has begun carrying out <\/span>arrests and deportations<\/span><\/a> and is calling for the public to collaborate by providing information, even anonymously.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gim\u00e9nez, Mar\u00eda Elvira Salazar, Mario D\u00edaz-Balart, and Marco Rubio have been described as \u201ctraitors\u201d on a billboard placed on the Palmetto Expressway, between Doral and Hialeah. The <\/span>Miami-Dade Hispanic Democratic Caucus<\/b><\/a>, which promoted this campaign, said that \u201cinstead of defending our families, they have remained silent while immigrant communities are attacked, detained, and deported.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Billboard installed in Miami against Cuban-American politicians Marco Rubio, Mar\u00eda Elvira Salazar, Carlos Gim\u00e9nez, and Mario D\u00edaz-Balart. Photo: Taken from the Miami-Dade Hispanic Democratic Caucus\u2019 X account.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Arguments for change<\/h3>\n

The conversation with Joe Garc\u00eda will focus on these events. During the Biden administration, Garc\u00eda, who was also executive director of Jorge Mas Canosa\u2019s Cuban American National Foundation, remained very active, lobbying and supporting the emerging world of private entrepreneurship in Cuba to <\/span>encourage new relationships between businesspeople from both shores<\/span><\/a>. He appeared to be trying to <\/span>foster arguments<\/b><\/a> that would encourage the administration to change its Cuba policy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Joe Garc\u00eda: \u201cCuba\u2019s problem cannot be solved without Miami\u201d<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n