MIAMI – Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava met with recently-released Nicaraguan political prisoners Wednesday morning.
Several of the people at the mayor’s Miami news conference were in a Nicaraguan prison just a week prior.
One of them, a housemom of three, said she was arrested and jailed for 15 months for expressing a critical view about the government.
According to a recent Human Rights Watch report, “(t)he government of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice-President Rosario Murillo, deepened its systematic repression against critics, journalists, and human rights defenders. Dozens of people arbitrarily detained remain behind bars.”
“Who we have here are political prisoners in the that were in Nicaragua that were released and also sent to the U.S.,” Maureen Porras, an immigration attorney and Doral city councilwoman, said. “There was some arrangement with the administration, with the Biden administration, to receive them here in the U.S. is my understanding. Right now, they have a temporary two year parole, which gives them authorization to apply for employment authorization. And obviously, they’re going to have to legalize their status more than likely by applying for asylum.”
The political prisoners are seeking sponsors to help them do that.
Visit the Welcome Corps for resources about how to sponsor refugees.