Detained Cuban awaits asylum for 13 months

U-T San Diego/

Miguel Angel Fernandez Crespo/ Foto:usaid.gov

A Cuban who was imprisoned for more than a decade for speaking out against dictator Fidel Castro is again waiting on freedom, this time from U.S. immigration officials who detained him since he sought asylum at the San Ysidro Port of Entry 13 months ago.

Miguel Angel Fernandez Crespo, 46, is considered a “national security” threat by the Department of Homeland Security, according to court documents. It is an accusation that Fernandez Crespo’s lawyers and the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties say is wrong and has led to a prolonged and unconstitutional detention.

He is scheduled for an asylum hearing Wednesday in San Diego immigration court.

Separately, the ACLU has sued on Fernandez Crespo’s behalf to have him be released from a detention facility in Otay Mesa while he awaits the outcome of his asylum application. His is one of several cases in which the ACLU has criticized the government for extended detention without justification.

The Cuban national, known as a contra-revolutionary in his home country and once listed on a Vatican list of political prisoners who should be freed, said he feels he is on trial again.

“They are condemning me,” Fernandez Crespo said in a telephone interview from the San Diego Correctional Facility. “In Cuba, talking is a violation and laws exist to punish talking. Now I am seeing the U.S. as more like Cuba.” More >>