Seated at the back of a Cuban restaurant in Doral, in the Miami metropolitan area, Taimy Alfonso scanned the room, hoping to catch the eye of a waiter so she could order ham croquettes and grilled chicken. No luck. "Restaurants have lost a huge number of staff lately. Many employees are afraid of checks by US immigration police [ICE]," noted the 28-year-old Cuban American.

Doctors Taimy Alfonso Sanchez and Julio César Alfonso Sánchez in Doral, Florida, on September 22, 2026. Both said they feel disillusioned by the current situation.

Coming from a modest background – her father is an electrician, her mother a home care worker – she arrived in the United States in 2004 and worked her way up to become a doctor. She also leads a medical aid NGO in Cuba, Solidaridad sin Fronteras. In her family and social circle, voting for the Republican Party is second nature. But although Alfonso voted for Trump in the 2024 presidential election, she now says she is "disappointed" by "this administration," primarily for one reason: its immigration policy.

Since the 1960s, Cubans migrating to the US have enjoyed a privileged status, thanks to the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, a law that gave them a quick and almost automatic path to permanent residency. The rules became stricter over the decades – especially during Barack Obama's second term (2013-2017) – but the overall framework remained. Starting in 2021-2022, Cuban immigration intensified, following the economic crisis triggered on the island by the Covid-19 pandemic. Around 800,000 people arrived in the US in five years.