Cuban Criminals Not Happy Over Castro News, Face Deportation If Relations Improve

"When Miami Cuban exile David Sebastian heard Fidel Castro ceded power, joy and fear gripped him. He was happy for the future of his country, but alarmed about his own future. Sebastian, convicted in the 1990s on charges of selling stolen marine equipment, is among the more than 29,000 Cuban exiles who may have no choice but to return to Cuba if there's a leadership change and democracy reigns on the island. The vast majority are criminal convicts who under laws approved by Congress in 1996 are subject to deportation. Removals have been put on hold because Cuba refuses to take back those exiles, and the United States has not pushed the issue in years," the Miami Herald reports. "Linda Osberg-Braun, another South Florida immigration attorney whose clients include prominent Cuban nationals with final deportation orders, said she doubted removals would occur anytime soon. ''I don't think Raúl will change the dictatorship of Cuba, and Cuba will continue to be an oppressive dictatorship,' Osberg-Braun said. 'Therefore, I do not believe relations will change or that we will develop a repatriation agreement with Cuba.'"

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