Sister Yudierquis Reyes Merino just went through a traumatic experience. This difficult ordeal ultimately resulted in her deportation from the United States, tearing her from her minor daughter that she had left behind. Reyes’s failed attempts to reach her daughter with video calls. She couldn’t figure out how to convince the girl that it was really her mother on the phone. For Reyes, the emotional goodbyes came after an arduous journey via coyote that brought her to the U.S. She chased the American Dream, and now she’s trapped in a web of criminalization and harsh immigration laws.
Reyes has a checkered history, including previous charges of child abuse and second-degree domestic assault. In 2023, he pleaded no contest to the felonious assault charge and was sentenced to probation. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) eventually told her that her daughter, a native-born U.S. citizen, could not be deported to Cuba. This short distance meant that Reyes’s only alternative was to go home alone. This decision was a crushing blow to Reyes. Now, she is forced to stay with relatives in Cuba after selling her house to pay for her trip to the U.S.
A Journey Filled with Peril
Yudierquis Reyes undertook a dangerous journey to reach the United States, crossing the notorious Darien Gap and evading kidnappers in Mexico. She even traveled on top of the notorious migrant “train of death,” infamous for its dangerous and deadly environment. Her other two kids came to the U.S. years before her and got their green cards. Sadly, Reyes was past the residency deadline, forcing an agonizing separation for the family.
Though she went through hell and back, Reyes spoke on what made her do everything possible to be with her daughter again. “I will go and get her. I don’t care if they give me 20 years in jail,” she stated passionately. Her determination underscores how dire things have gotten and what a mother will do to save her child.
“They left behind my two-year-old daughter. I lost her,” – Yudierquis Reyes Merino
Her children are fortunate enough to live in the opposite reality of what she encounters in her home country of Cuba. They all have their adopted lives and passports to stay, but she is still processing her new life change.
The Legal Landscape
The legal underpinnings of immigration, deportation, and removal are complicated at best, and even more so for Cuban nationals. Under the current U.S. law, those looking to become permanent residents or avoid deportation have enormous barriers to do so if they have a criminal record. In Reyes’ situation, her previous convictions tipped the scales against her. Though prosecutors eventually dropped the child abuse charge against her after she entered a no contest plea to a second-degree assault charge, the damage was done.
ICE officials further clarified that under current policy, U.S. citizen children of deported parents—typically very young children—tend to remain in the country with a responsible adult. There are conditions under which the opposite happens. In Reyes’ case, it was ICE that informed Reyes that her daughter would remain in the U.S. Her father, a U.S. citizen, will raise her.
“In this case, the father – an U.S. citizen – requested the child remain with him.”
This policy has recently caused uproar between advocacy groups. They contend it serves as another unwanted layer of strain on families that are likely already facing major stressors.
The Personal Toll of Immigration Policies
Beyond the legal implications of U.S. immigration policies, the consequences are personal. Alejandro Garcia del Toro, a member of Dream — an immigrant rights organization — said immigration decisions made decades ago have led to the plight of Cuban nationals today.
“The issue is the US law – the decision by the US government in the 1960s to use the immigration factor as a political weapon against the Cuban revolution has now created this reality,” – Alejandro Garcia del Toro
Advocates as well as many policymakers have rightly decried that these policies overlook the devastating emotional and familial effects that deportation has. Miguel Camacho, another chronicler of this plight, told Reyes that the environmental conditions his daughter would be arriving to in Cuba are terribly unfavorable.
“Life would be too hard for her there now,” – Miguel Camacho
And despite all the uncertainty illustrated in her story, Yudierquis Reyes remains resolute that her hardships are only seasonal. Her unyielding passion for her kids inspires her drive and perseverance. Her statement reflects both desperation and hope: “Donald Trump only has three years left. I have the rest of my life.”
