Many Cubans Voted for Trump – Now They’re Turning Against the Republicans

TVS News AI, editorially supervised, presents Many Cubans Voted for Trump – Now They’re Turning Against the Republicans.

On October 30, 2026, a BBC report from Miami describes a sharp political rupture. Cuban-American immigration lawyer Ismael Labrador had voted for Trump. Today he regrets that decision – because, in his assessment, people without criminal convictions are also being affected by deportations.

Labrador describes the consequences of the tougher enforcement himself: His Miami office’s calendar is constantly full. Relatives of people in custody try there to secure the release of their loved ones before they are deported to their respective countries of origin. “We have relatives who are now living in fear, and relatives who were sent back to Cuba,” he says.

Many Cubans voted for Trump – now their dissatisfaction is directed at the Republicans’ immigration positions.

Labrador Voted for Trump and Regrets the Decision

68% of Cuban Americans in Florida had voted for Donald Trump two years earlier. Labrador was among them. What makes it particularly bitter for him is that Trump had already publicly announced mass deportations in 2024. At rallies in Florida, he repeatedly said: “On the first day, I’m launching the largest deportation program in American history.”

By his own account, Labrador and many disappointed Latin American voters had expected the administration to deport only people with criminal convictions. He had voted for Trump because he wanted to “get criminals out of the country” and believed that “communists from Cuba under Biden” would come into the country. “I think we were caught off guard by the administration,” Labrador says. “We wanted a safe America. We never thought he would go after everyone.”

His criticism is therefore not directed at the promised goal of carrying out mass deportations. It is directed at their scale and their targets. The concrete rupture is contained in his sentence, “That’s not what I voted for”: Many Cubans expected a limited measure and now see themselves as targets of enforcement.

The Arrests Are Reaching School Gates, Bus Stops and Courtrooms

The new situation is particularly evident in footage captured on numerous mobile phones in Florida. The videos show parents outside schools, at bus stops, at sporting events and even in courtrooms, where ICE officers make arrests.

Particularly sensational was the arrest of Grace Calero, 39, and her 19-year-old daughter Giulianna Carriel at a hospital in Kissimmee, in central Florida. The two were on their way to work two months earlier when another car hit them and an ambulance took them to the hospital. While they were receiving treatment there, ICE officers entered and arrested both of them. A few days later, they had been sent back to Ecuador.

The deportations are thus not limited to remote locations or detention centers. They encompass families in situations where they are already being protected or are at least on the move. Labrador’s own cousin was also arrested and, despite his efforts, sent back to Cuba. His matter-of-fact explanation conceals the relationship between the means: “It’s hard when you’re fighting against a lot of resources.”

Cubans traditionally have a preferred immigration status in the United States. The basis is the Cuban Adjustment Act of the 1960s and special rights that have since been sharply curtailed by the Trump administration. Nevertheless, Labrador warns: “If you don’t have a Green Card in the US, you can be a target.”

A Survey Shows: Criticism of Trump and Support for the Republicans

The dissatisfaction does not mean that Republican support has disappeared in South Florida. At a gathering of Cuban-American businesspeople in Miami, a distinctly pro-Trump atmosphere still prevailed. Real estate agent Juan Omar Sixto said: “Miami loves Trump, Cuban Americans love Trump.” He too supported the idea that everyone who had crossed the border illegally should leave the country – even though he himself came to the United States without a residence permit six decades ago.

A survey by Florida International University published on Thursday makes the tension measurable: 76% of Cubans in South Florida opposed the deportation of Cubans without criminal convictions. At the same time, 68% still intended to vote for the Republicans in November. That is the strongest counterargument to the assumption of a complete political rupture. Criticism of enforcement can coexist with support for the party.

Among Cuban-American voters in Florida, however, a shift away from the Republicans remains possible. Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar, who represents Florida’s 27th congressional district, posted a video recorded outside the White House. In it, she said Trump’s deportation policy had “gone too far” and told Trump: “The same Hispanics who brought you to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today.”

Salazar is involved in a close race against Eliott Rodríguez, a Cuban-American Democratic candidate. Her close alignment with Trump on immigration policy could cost her her seat. The dissatisfaction thus has a concrete electoral consequence.

Cubans Outside Florida Are Also Turning Away from the Republicans

Florida remains a Trump stronghold. Trump won there in the last election with 56.1%, compared with Kamala Harris’s 43.0% – the largest margin of victory for a candidate in the state since 1988. Part of that result was attributable to Latin American voters.

Support is declining outside Florida. A survey by NBC News and Telemundo of 8,000 registered Latin American voters found that almost 60% wanted the Democrats to take control of Congress, while 35% preferred a Republican victory. The report cites high food and gasoline prices for low-income families as an important reason. There are also reports of deportations, such as the case of Heydi Sanchez.

Heydi Sanchez Was Flown to Cuba in Chains with Her Baby

Sanchez left Cuba in 2019, when the island was heading toward an economic collapse, and subsequently crossed the border from Mexico into the United States illegally. After nine months in a detention center, she was released under an i-220B Order of Supervision. This allowed her to remain in the United States but was accompanied by the constant threat of deportation. In Tampa, she worked with autistic children and older people.

After complex and expensive fertility treatment, Sanchez and her husband had a daughter named Kailyn. Trump revoked the provisional humanitarian parole status of approximately 300,000 Cubans last year. When Sanchez’s regular ICE appointment was brought forward without warning, she sensed that something was wrong. ICE detained her during questioning. Kailyn was taken from her arms and handed over to her father, a US citizen.

Within a single day, Sanchez was put on a flight to Havana in chains; an appeal was not possible. She has now spent more than a year living in a one-room apartment in Mayabeque, a rural province outside Havana. During video calls, her daughter says: “Mummy, come home.” Sanchez replies: “Darling, Mummy is gone and working.”

ICE said Sanchez had stated in the case that she wanted to be deported without her daughter and that the child had remained with a safe relative in the United States. Sanchez herself describes the separation differently: “It’s as if the sky were falling and crushing me.”

The Trump administration has withdrawn Cubans’ special privileges and sent thousands of people back to an island that Washington itself calls a “failed state.” Cuba is also grappling with its worst energy crisis and a US fuel blockade that has lasted for months. The consequence for the Cuban electorate in Florida is clear: Despite their support for Trump, Cubans are just as vulnerable to the deportations as other parts of the Latin American population. Their dissatisfaction could therefore also cause problems for the Republican Party’s supporters at the polls.