Collection on Cuban migrants in indefinite detention, 1995-1999
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Summary
- Creator:
- Town, Sarah
- Abstract:
- Cuban people emigrated to the United States as refugees in 1980 during the Mariel Boatlift. A small percentage of them were imprisoned in the U.S. on felony charges, which are cause for deportation under immigration law. After a 1987 prison riot where Cuban detainees protested deportation, the migrants were granted an indefinite moratorium on deportation and a fair review of their case. A decade later many were still in federal detention centers awaiting review of their case, and they often wrote to Amnesty International for help. Collection consists largely of unsolicited correspondence from Cuban migrants written to Sarah Town while she interned with Amnesty International's Refugee Office. Acquired as part of the Human Rights Archive at Duke University.
- Extent:
- 0.25 Linear Feet
- Language:
- Materials in English and Spanish.
- Collection ID:
- RL.12044
Background
- Scope and content:
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Collection consists largely of correspondence from Cuban migrants in indefinite detention written to Sarah Town. Most of the correspondence is in Spanish. There is also correspondence from other organizations and individuals as well, such as the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC). Also included are intergovernmental service agreements (IGSAs) between U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services and local jails, contracting the jails to hold immigrants.
- Biographical / historical:
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Between April and October 1980, thousands of people left Cuba on boats seeking political and economic refuge in the United States during an event known as the Mariel Boatlift. A small percentage of migrants ended up in U.S. prisons facing felony charges, which are cause for deportation under immigration law. Throughout the 1980s, the U.S. deported more than 2,000 excludable individuals back to Cuba, where many were immediately re-imprisoned. Faced with the threat of deportation, about 2,400 Cubans held at the Federal Detention Center in Oakdale, L.A. and the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, G.A. rioted in 1987, taking hostages and extensively damaging property in both facilities. After almost two weeks, the standoff was resolved. In exchange for their surrender and the safe release of all hostages, each Cuban detainee would gain an indefinite moratorium on their repatriation to Cuba and a "full, fair, and equitable review" of their case.
Ten years later, more than 1,000 of the original participants in the Mariel Boatlift remained in federal, state, county, and private detention facilities awaiting review. In addition to the Mariel detainees, a growing number of other Cuban immigrants had been re-detained pending deportation by the Immigration and Naturalization Service after serving prison sentences for excludable criminal offenses. The Cuban detainees often contacted Amnesty International's US National Refugee Office because its contact information was included in lists of resources for them. However, the National Refugee Office did not represent individual asylum seekers; rather, it provided documentation of human rights abuses around the world in order to substantiate asylum claims. Nevertheless, detainees continued to contact the National Refugee Office for help.
Sarah Town served as an intern with Amnesty International USA's National Refugee Office in San Francisco, C.A., in 1997, where she received unsolicited correspondence from Cuban migrants held in federal detention centers. Sarah Town was motivated to learn more about the migrants' conditions and raise awareness about it, so the rest of the documents in the collection comprise her research files.
Source: Sarah Town, "Seventeen Years and Counting: A History of the Indefinite Detention of Cuban Immigrants," In Motion Magazine (accessed September 2022).
- Acquisition information:
- The Collection on Cuban migrants in indefinite detention was received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a gift from Sarah Town in 2022.
- Processing information:
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Processed by Leah Tams, September 2022.
Accessions described in this collection guide: 2022-0124.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Subjects
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Contents
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Collection is open for research.
- Terms of access:
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- Preferred citation:
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[Identification of item], Collection on Cuban migrants in indefinite detention, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.
- Permalink:
- https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/m1715p