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The Florida International University poll surveyed 1,004 Cuban American adults in Miami-Dade County between September 4 and September 29 and carries a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points according to the Miami Herald. Seventy-four percent of respondents disapprove of the increase in deportations of Cuban nationals with no criminal record while 61 percent strongly disapprove the Miami Herald reported on October 29. Support for Republican congressional candidates nevertheless reaches 60 percent in the survey even as many respondents remain undecided in other races.
This opposition to deportations crosses party lines with 63 percent of Republicans who offered an opinion disapproving of the policy and 92 percent of those who arrived after 2020 strongly opposing it according to the FIU Cuba Poll. “This should not be a surprise” Grenier said according to the Miami Herald. “Everybody’s against it.”
The findings arrive as the Trump administration has deported Cubans in record numbers with the Cuban government reporting more than 1,600 repatriations in 2025 roughly double the total from 2024 the New York Times stated in January. Many of those removed have been sent to Mexico rather than Cuba where they face precarious living conditions and legal limbo a pattern detailed in New York Times reporting and a Human Rights Watch assessment. The approach marks a departure from long-standing privileges Cuban migrants once enjoyed under laws such as the Cuban Adjustment Act according to multiple accounts.
Ismael Labrador who was among the 68 percent of Cuban Americans in Florida who voted for Trump in 2024 told BBC News he was blindsided by the scale of the deportations and now regrets his decision. Republican Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar who represents Florida’s 27th district released a video outside the White House in which she said the deportation policy had gone “too far” the BBC reported on October 30. Her comments reflect buyer’s remorse expressed by some in the community that backed Trump by wide margins two years ago.
Cuban Americans in the survey continue to favor maximum pressure on the Havana government with 67 percent approving Cuba’s placement on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism and 57 percent viewing the island as a threat to vital American interests the FIU poll showed. Eighty-seven percent called for resuming the processing of immigration benefits for Cubans already living in the United States a stance backed by 86 percent of Republicans in the sample according to the Miami Herald. The poll also found that 68 percent of respondents plan to vote Republican in November matching the community’s all-time high support recorded in 2024.
Separate polling indicates other Latino groups nationally and in Florida are moving away from Republicans ahead of the midterms yet Cuban American backing for the GOP has held steady at 53 percent Republican registration in the FIU sample. Guillermo Grenier the poll’s director and a FIU sociology professor attributed the loyalty to the depth of the Republican brand within Cuban voter identity in comments to WLRN. The community’s anti-communist outlook continues to align with GOP positions on Cuba even as immigration enforcement creates divisions.
