U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to proceed with mass deportations of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally and likely to include Cubans is neither realistic nor fair, a Cuban undersecretary of state for foreign affairs said yesterday (Wednesday).

Mr. Trump promised a tough crackdown on illegal immigration on the campaign trail and is aiming to deport record numbers of undocumented immigrants. J. D. Vance, who will be sworn in as vice president in January, reckons as many as 1 million people a year could be deported.

Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossio expressed his views after regular talks in Havana with a delegation from the administration of outgoing US President Joe Biden on migration issues.

Any proposal for deportation must pass scrutiny under existing migration agreements between Washington and Havana, Fernández de Cossio reminded reporters.

In this context, “it is not realistic for anyone to think that there could be mass deportations from the United States to Cuba,” he added.

Under the agreements, Cuba agreed to deport a small number of its citizens by air and sea during Mr Biden’s tenure.

Tom Homan, whom Mr. Trump has called the border “czar”, has announced that mostly convicted felons and people for whom final decisions are pending will be deported. He has not mentioned any exceptions involving particular groups of people or nationalities.

Donald Trump’s plans were not discussed with the Biden administration delegation yesterday, Fernandes de Cossio said.

The U.S. delegation met with officials in the Cuban capital to discuss issues related to a bilateral immigration agreement dating back to 1984, Brian Nichols, the State Department official in charge of Latin America and the Caribbean, clarified via X.

The delegation “underscored our success in reducing illegal immigration of Cubans by sea and land,” Nichols added.

As of now, it is unclear whether Donald Trump will keep pre-existing agreements with Havana in place or whether he will demand that re-negotiation take place, as he has done on other occasions.

Cuba has said for decades that the U.S. embargo since the Cold War era is hitting its economy hard and causing mass migration of Cubans to the U.S.

However, if Washington decided to repatriate them en masse it would be too drastic and unfair, according to Mr. Fernandes de Cossio.

“If there were an attempt to deport thousands, or hundreds of thousands” of people to Cuba, “we would essentially be uprooting people who have now made their lives in the United States,” he explained.

In his first term (2017-2021), Mr. Trump had not been able to increase the number of deportations much.

The Biden administration deported more immigrants in fiscal year 2023 than the previous Trump administration did in any year.

Immigrant rights advocates warn that if Mr. Trump’s administration, which will take office on Jan. 20, implements its plan for mass deportations, the result may prove too costly, divisive, and inhumane – as it will likely tear families apart and hurt many communities.