MIAMI — Known to his listeners as El Oski, the Cuban-born podcaster once proudly called himself a fan of President Donald Trump.
On his podcast, El Oski and other recent arrivals from Cuba share their experiences adjusting to life in Miami. In a one-on-one interview with Local 10 News, he didn’t shy away from his political admiration, describing himself plainly as a Trump supporter.
His loyalty, he said, even went under the needle.
El Oski showed reporters a tattoo honoring the president, a commitment that took three sessions of about four hours each to complete.
He recalled being “very excited about Trump” at the time.
But that enthusiasm has slowly faded away as immigration enforcement intensifies nationwide.
“I’m scared,” he said in Spanish, acknowledging that he and many other Cubans remain at risk of deportation.
El Oski is among an estimated hundreds of thousands of Cubans who entered the United States through the southern border and were released under an immigration document known as an I-220A, rather than being formally paroled into the country.
Immigration attorney Mark Prada estimates at least 400,000 Cubans are in the same situation.
The distinction between parole and an I-220A is critical.
According to Prada, the federal government does not recognize an I-220A as a lawful entry for purposes of adjusting immigration status.
“It’s a problem because the government does not accept that as a legal entry,” he said.
As a result, Cubans with I-220A documents cannot apply for permanent residency under the Cuban Adjustment Act, a decades-old law designed to provide a pathway to legal status.
Prada is now challenging the Trump administration’s policies in court, arguing that Cubans released into the country should be considered paroled regardless of the paperwork they received.
“We’ve been arguing that they’ve all been paroled and that the paperwork is just paper,” he said.
Until the issue is resolved, Cubans like El Oski remain, as he described it, “in limbo.”
“This isn’t what you expected. It’s not what I expected,” he said.
El Oski arrived in the United States in 2019 and believed that by now Trump would have helped Cubans like him legalize their status.
“It’s been the complete opposite,” he said.
Despite feeling let down, El Oski says he does not regret his tattoo. He remains hopeful -- both for Cubans trying to build new lives in the United States and for those still on the island.
“Cuba libre,” he said -- free Cuba.
And despite his frustration, El Oski says he still believes the man he admires so deeply will ultimately come through.
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