SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up President Trump's mandatory immigration detention policy. And that is the focus of this week's immigration briefing.
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SIMON: A weekly look at the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. This week, we're looking at Cuban Americans in Miami and their reaction to the president's aggressive enforcement operations in southern Florida. NPR immigration reporter Sergio Martínez-Beltrán joins us now. Sergio, thanks so much for being with us.
SERGIO MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN, BYLINE: Good to be with you, Scott.
SIMON: This week, the Supreme Court agreed to look at the legality of the administration's policy that denies bond hearings for detained immigrants in the U.S. What do we know about this policy?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: This policy is part of President Trump's efforts to deport as many immigrants as possible. And at the core of this case the Supreme Court will take up is whether immigrants in the interior of the U.S. have a right to a bond hearing to decide whether they must stay in detention while they fight their deportation. Now, the Trump administration has said immigrants should face mandatory, indefinite detention without hearings while they challenge their removal.
The justices will only decide this term on whether this policy violates current federal law. They're not taking up the broader legal question of whether Trump's policy violates constitutional due process protections. So far, though, the appeal courts have been split on this question, although most have ruled this mandatory detention violates due process and federal law because they're holding people without a bond hearing.
SIMON: And how are the administration's actions different from what past presidents have done?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: So other presidents have interpreted the law to apply only to those immigrants who have just crossed the border. Those folks were the ones to face mandatory detention. But for the Trump administration, it applies to immigrants who have been in the interior of the U.S. for years, some for many decades. You know, these folks have built families and businesses in the U.S. And the vast majority have no criminal record. So yeah, I mean, it's very different to what we've seen with other administrations.
SIMON: And how many people are in immigration detention right now?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Well, the last batch of government data was released in July. And it shows that there were about 66,000 immigrants in detention. Nearly 71% of detainees have no criminal convictions. But we know August was a very active month, so that number of detention might be higher. The Department of Homeland Security says ICE agents arrested nearly 51,000 immigrants in August. That's a monthly record high, Scott. The Trump administration says, overall, it has deported over 600,000 immigrants so far.
SIMON: Thousands of those deported are Cubans. This is a group of the population that historically has supported Republicans and many of President Trump's policies. You were in Miami recently, reporting on Cubans there. What did you find?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Well, there's a lot of discontent and frustration among Cubans and Cuban Americans in south Florida. A big part of it is because the Trump administration has said that many Cubans who arrived in the U.S. during the Biden administration do not qualify to get a permanent residency through the Cuban Adjustment Act. That's a Cold War-era law that protected Cubans fleeing communism. Now, that change is currently being challenged in court.
But in the meantime, Cubans have been deported to third countries like Mexico, where the administration has sent nearly 6,000 Cubans. And many others have been sent to African countries, including Aristides Fernandez Garcia. He was deported to the Central African Republic. He told NPR he's gotten sick there. He's still in detention. And he feels he has lost precious time.
ARISTIDES FERNANDEZ GARCIA: (Speaking Spanish).
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Time with family, time with older people, those who have less time left, he says, that's something you can't recover. Not even with millions of dollars.
For now, the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to continue with the third-country deportations, but the court has agreed to take up this issue as well this term.
SIMON: Now, Sergio, what have been some of the political consequences of these policies with Cubans and other Latino groups in south Florida?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Well, so far, it doesn't look great for Trump and his party. You know, I talk to many Cubans and Cuban Americans who say they feel disappointed. They are scared. They are angry at Trump's policies. You know, many of the Cubans felt that Trump's crackdown was not going to reach them, in part because Cubans have been historically shielded from shifting immigration policies. But that's not the case anymore. That's what Michael Bustamante told me. He teaches Cuban American history at the University of Miami.
MICHAEL BUSTAMANTE: People who have been here for 30, 40 years are often elderly or often vulnerable. They're being deported to Mexico - to southern Mexico - with not really having a path to immigration status in Mexico either. They're sort of stateless, effectively, as a result of this.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: And now we're seeing more Republican elected officials denounce or push back against Trump on this issue. Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar - who represents south Florida and has been a staunch Trump supporter - she released an ad recently, telling Trump that Hispanics who helped get him elected in 2024 now feel betrayed, and that his immigration policies have gone too far. She's in a tight reelection race. But this discontent goes way beyond Florida, Scott.
In West Virginia, Republican Senator Jim Justice said recently, the Trump administration should take a step back, acknowledge it's doing something wrong and adjust its immigration enforcement approach. And all of this is happening, of course, as we're just a month away from the midterm elections.
SIMON: NPR's Sergio Martínez-Beltrán with this week's immigration briefing. Sergio, thanks so much.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: You're welcome.
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