Cuban exile leader Ramon Saul Sanchez facing possible deportation over flotillas activity
MIAMI -- A well-known activist who has been in South Florida for years is facing serious allegations that could result in him being sent back to Cuba.
Ramon Saul Sanchez, 68, has been known for years for heading flotillas, a fleet of vessels that travel to international waters in order to throw flowers close to Cuba to commemorating the deaths of rafters and people murdered by the Havana regime, has been accused of illegal activity, he said.
"The (federal) government alleges that I am a terrorist," he said Thursday, pointing to a 17-page document in which U.S. immigration officials listed the reasons they want him removed from the county. "They allege that the flotillas disrupt international relations because they are irresponsible events that I entice people to go to these crazy events. Those are memorial flotillas to remember children, women and men who were murdered by the Cuban regime."
The exiled Cuban activist made the announcement at the Cuban prisoner museum in Little Havana where he was supported by members of other organizations who said he should not be deported.
Sanchez is scheduled to face the immigration judge who will decide his case on July 27.
"It would be very convenient for the (Cuban) regime to put Ramon Saul Sanchez on trial," said Orlando Gutierrez from the Directorio Democratico Cubano.
"Every Cuban is Ramon Saul Sanchez because (that) is the right of our expression," said Gus Garcia of the Democracy Movement.
Sanchez has been in the U.S. since 1967, and according to him he has attempted to become an American resident for the last 21 years.
But he said he has not been allowed to do so and claims that his actions against the Cuban government have been politicized by the American government depending on the administration in the White House.
"He came to the U.S. as a refugee," said Willy Allen, who has been Sanchez's immigration attorney for over 25 years. "Many Cubans, Ramon Saul among them, believed that becoming an American resident or American citizen they could be considering to be abandoning the struggle for a free Cuba."
He referred to a deportation order having been cancelled in 1998 but an agreement was made in which Ramon Saul Sanchez would receive a work permit every year while he would wait for a residency request response.
Allen said under the Trump Administration that changed and instead, his client was scheduled for an interview.
"As a result of that interview he was charged by USCIS with being a terrorist," the immigration attorney said
CBS News Miami asked Allen if Sanchez could be deported.
"I have a high level of confidence that he will not be deported," he said.