Eduardo Padrón (Santiago de Cuba, 81 years old), president emeritus of Miami Dade College, speaks with the serenity of someone who has dedicated his entire life to education. But when he describes the treatment many migrants receive in the United States today, his tone changes to restrained indignation. “What is happening is an unacceptable, cruel mistreatment that demonstrates a lack of respect for the dignity of human beings,” he says in a conversation with EL PAÍS. “And I feel like we have an obligation to speak up, because we are immigrants.”
This belief led him to join, together with other prominent figures in the community, the “Four Voices, One Miami” campaign, promoted by Keep Them Honest. The initiative includes billboards and videos on social networks denouncing that the Donald Trump administration’s immigration policies “dehumanize” immigrants and force them to live “in fear”. In addition to Padrón, journalist Michael Putney, presenter Leticia Callava and civic leader and former director of Miami Herald David Lawrence Jr.
The initiative is funded by Keep Them Honest, Inc., an organization that has launched campaigns criticizing South Florida Republican leaders for failing to defend immigrants fleeing dictatorships. Some ads say “Deporting immigrants is cruel,” with images of lawmakers. Cuban-American philanthropist Mike Fernández revealed that he contributed millions of dollars to the campaign.
The Donald Trump administration has promised mass deportations and stepped up raids on workplaces, traffic stops and detention of people in immigration courts. The climate of fear has separated numerous families and directly affected large Latino diasporas in South Florida, where many remained in immigration limbo after the government canceled their temporary protections or humanitarian programs that allowed them to live and work legally.
Florida, under the leadership of Republican governor Ron DeSantis, has followed a similar line, with laws criminalizing the entry of immigrants into the state, the creation of new detention centers and agreements between police forces and federal agencies to arrest immigrants. DeSantis also promoted Trump’s presidential library project in Miami, which involved the hasty transfer of land from the MDC to the state, something Padrón has publicly criticized.
On its website, Keep Them Honest takes direct aim at South Florida Congressmen Mario Díaz-Balart, Carlos Giménez, and María Elvira Salazar for remaining silent while legal protections are stripped from Cubans, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, and Haitians. “Too many politicians act like they’ve forgotten where they come from,” the site says.
Padrón insists that his participation is not intended to attack anyone. “My sole purpose is to defend immigrant rights, fight against abuses and how laws are not properly enforced in the treatment of immigrants,” he added.
Padrón emigrated from Cuba to Miami as a teenager through Operation Peter Pan, a mass exodus of minors who arrived alone. He led the MDC for nearly 25 years and in 2016 received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Remember that many of the people who have made important contributions to this country came from other places, like him.
Padrón recognizes that migrants, like every citizen, have “an obligation to obey the laws, to behave according to the circumstances. There should be no exceptions simply because we are immigrants. We must set an example,” he says. But he adds that this conversation is often disconnected from reality.
“What worries me is that if you look at police records, the percentage of crimes committed by immigrants is very small compared to the rest of the population,” he explains. “And this is never talked about. Currently, the way it is presented to the American people is as if immigrants are criminals, undesirables, responsible for all kinds of abuse. When in reality it is the opposite.”
For Padrón Miami is the most visible proof of this contradiction. The city was built by migrants from all over seeking freedom and opportunity. “It’s something that should be celebrated, not punished,” he says.
What hurts him most is the climate of growing cruelty in immigration enforcement, with practices he describes as “derogatory and discriminatory,” often based solely on appearance or accent. “If someone looks Hispanic, whether it’s the color of their skin or the accent they have, a lot of times it’s grounds to stop them, destroy their car, take them to jail, throw them to the ground. Those are fascist practices that have no place in a country like this,” he says.
