After DHS misstep, Salazar right to demand U.S. let Cuban asylum seekers stay | Opinion

The U.S. government committed blunder upon blunder, and U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar is right to demand the it fix its dangerous mistake.

In a correspondence last month with Cuba Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security accidentally uploaded to its web page, making visible to Cuban officials a spreadsheet that included the personal details of more than 6,000 migrants seeking protection in the United States, among them 46 Cubans, Miami Herald Cuba reporter Nora Gamez Torres reported.

That was bad enough, but then DHS tipped its hand again.

U.S. officials then told the Cuban government it would delay the deportations to the island because of the leak — “indirectly confirming to Havana that the potential Cuban deportees sought to flee persecution or torture,” the Herald reported.

What a Mickey Mouse move is that by the Biden administration.

The Cuban-American Salazar is right step up to protect the lives of the 46 asylum seekers. She should.

In her letter to the administration, Salazar wrote to DHS head Alejandro Mayorkas, demanding he take the necessary steps to protect these individuals and reassess their asylum petitions.

“The United States cannot continue to be a beacon of freedom if we put those fleeing persecution and violence at risk,’‘ Salazar, a Miami Republican, wrote.

Salazar is right. The United States cannot be in the business of endangering the lives back home of those who seek asylum here.

“Anything that is said in a meeting with the Cuban regime can and will be used against the political opposition, which is at constant risk of detainment and torture. The safety and well-being of refugees fleeing from the regime must be the guiding principle of our Cuban migrant policy,” she made clear in her letter.

Well said.

ICE sent the migrants a letter in early December apologizing for the accidental disclosure, which included personal information such as their names, birth dates and credible- and reasonable-fear screening outcomes. Unbelievable.

DHS must better by doing right by the 46 asylum seekers it exposed. Do not deport them. Accept their claim for political asylum, which will let them remain in the United States. It’s the only thing to do after such careless, and potentially dangerous, mistakes.

This story was originally published December 22, 2022 at 3:33 PM.