In recent hours, hundreds of Cubans have been prevented from boarding flights to the United States with approved travel permits under the humanitarian parole program.
The situation has generated a lot of uncertainty and concern among affected travelers.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed Telemundo 51 journalist Alexis Boentes said that “they are aware of reports of people who have been prevented from traveling, despite having travel authorizations under the humanitarian parole program.”
However, they insisted that people with advance travel authorizations are allowed to fly to the United States.
Boentes said it is not clear who gave the order to American Airlines to deny flights to the Cubans. So far, the airline has not responded to queries on the matter.
What is known is that the airline told the passengers that their flight permits “had been revoked” and, therefore, they could not allow them to board.
Uncertainty among beneficiaries of humanitarian parole
The lack of clarity and the absence of official responses have left many Cubans in limbo, not knowing when they will be able to resume their travel plans or the final destination of the legal emigration program.
In a recent exchange on social media, a user and the aforementioned journalist Alexis Boentes of Telemundo 51 debated the current status of parole.
The user expressed concern about the use of terms, stating that “parole is ‘frozen’, not suspended. Care must be taken when mispronouncing words, it can create panic among people and even more so when many have lost everything,” he wrote.
In response, Alexis Boentes clarified: “Frozen is a fancy or different word, but it is not even an official term. It is temporarily suspended.” “Right now it is suspended,” the reporter insisted later.
Officially, the American press has reported that the DHS has suspended provisionally issuing advance travel authorizations for the program “as a precaution.” They began with Venezuelans on July 6 and other nationalities on July 18.
This process allowed up to 30,000 nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (CHNV) to enter the U.S. each month under parole, as long as they met certain conditions.
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