Cuba agrees to accept US deportation flights as border crossings rise

Cuba has agreed for the first time since the pandemic to accept U.S. deportation flights carrying Cubans caught at the US-Mexico border, three US officials told Reuters, giving US authorities a new but limited tool to deter record numbers of Cuban border crossers. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has about a dozen Cubans in custody who failed an initial screening for asylum at the border, the officials said, requesting anonymity to discuss the diplomatic situation. The US agency is waiting until it has enough Cuban deportees to fill a plane before sending one to Havana, they said. A third source familiar with the matter said there was not a new formal agreement for regular deportation flights but that Cuba had agreed to accept occasional groups of deportees. Regular deportations of Cubans were halted during the COVID-19 pandemic, though the United States continued to deport a small number of Cubans via commercial airlines, a separate US official told Reuters.<br/>