A new Migration Law project opens the door for the Cuban Government to strip citizenship from those who dissent from the system, following the model of countries like Nicaragua, where hundreds of political opponents of Daniel Ortega have been deprived of their nationality. The document, published this week by the National Assembly of People’s Power (ANPP) and which has caused controversy, says that Cubans “cannot be deprived of their citizenship, except for legally established causes,” among which are “enlisting in any “type of armed organization with the objective of attacking the territorial integrity of the Cuban State, its citizens and other persons residing in the country, or from abroad carrying out acts contrary to the high political, economic and social interests of the Republic of Cuba.”
Now it would be in the hands of the president and the Cuban Ministry of the Interior (Minint) to decide who can be deprived or not of their status as citizens, since “they are the authorities in matters of citizenship, competent to resolve administrative files on the acquisition, loss, deprivation, renunciation and recovery of Cuban citizenship.” If this were the case, the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel would be empowered and protected by law to decide who maintains or does not maintain the status of Cuban citizen, something that could particularly harm many of those who dissent for political reasons, and who make up a long list of activists, journalists, artists or medical or sports personnel, among others.
The legislative proposal, whose draft has already been published but is pending approval, puts on the table another possibility until now denied to Cubans: that of renouncing citizenship. Until today, Cubans who have foreign citizenships are prohibited from entering the country with any passport other than the Cuban one, so, if possible, the claim of many abroad would come true. However, the document clarifies that those who opt for this decision “cannot identify themselves in Cuba as Cuban citizens, and for the purposes of entry and exit to the country they are subject to the presentation of the corresponding foreign passport, visa requirement and travel documents. that correspond”. Faced with the doubts and fears of many, directors of the Immigration and Immigration Service of the MININT insisted on National Television that “the principle establishes that Cubans do not lose Cuban citizenship for having another one. “No measures will be taken in the country in relation to that.”
The future Cuban Immigration Law fuels the debate in several ways: does it actually benefit or harm Cubans? Who can be stripped of their status as citizens? Are there more rights restrictions coming? These are some questions on the table in the public space. What is undoubted, in the midst of the largest migration crisis in the history of the island, which has reached more than half a million Cubans in the last three years, is that the Government wants to begin to control its diaspora. “The time has come to determine where Cubans reside,” a senior MININT official told the official press about a law that seeks to “regulate an updated immigration system,” but which to date remains confusing even for experts.
Although the new law continues to make a clear distinction between Cubans who live within Cuba and those who live abroad, the document insists that it seeks “a treatment for Cubans [residentes en el exterior] when they are in the national territory similar to that of Cuban residents.” It is a way that the Government could be resorting to to bring the country closer to its diaspora, vilified for so many years, but which has been an important issuer of remittances and could play a decisive role in promoting the private sector, the last stronghold of the country to save the economy, which is experiencing a severe crisis.
For some Cubans outside the island, however, the law also provides a respite. In 2020, given the restrictions in airports around the world due to the coronavirus crisis, the Government of Cuba paused a law that stripped any citizen who remained abroad for more than two years of their Cuban resident status. If a Cuban delayed more than that time in returning to the country, he automatically lost his resident status, which meant the loss of several guarantees such as the obligation of the State to provide him with free medical care or education, or the right to vote, or the possibility of having assets in the country. This new law, at first glance, would benefit those who extend their stay, eliminating “the 24-month stay abroad and the designation of migrant for this reason, based on the new definition of effective immigration residence.” For years, thousands of Cubans lost their resident status and began to occupy the status of “émigrés”, a gap in which all those who were abroad for more than two years fell and which is extinguished with the new law.
The right to property, so often put at risk, is another issue that worries Cubans and may no longer be a threat, as it has been in past times. Entire families, for years, lost land, houses, cars and other property by staying out of the country for longer than authorized. As can be seen in the future law, Cubans will be able to inherit and have properties on the island, as long as they comply with what is established. But what real benefits they will have, or how this law harms Cuban citizens, is something that many do not dare to say until more details are offered.
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