Gloria Estefan revealed that she carries her passport at all times in the U.S. due to the country’s approach to immigrants.
The Cuban-American singer and four-time Grammy Award winner made the remarks while comparing similarities between the U.S. under President Donald Trump’s immigration policies and the Cuba her family fled under Fidel Castro.
In an interview with The Times, Estefan said she has seen people detained despite having lived legally in the country for decades.
“I have lived in the U.S. for 66 years — never have I seen freedoms being eroded in the way they are now,” she said. “I know people who are in the country legally and have been taken away.”
She described one case involving a woman who had lived in the U.S. for 25 years, entered legally with a visa, and paid taxes.
“In her last appointment at immigration, she got carried away and has been at a detention center for five months,” Estefan said.
Estefan, who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015, said “I carry my passport card around just in case, because who knows what can happen. I was born in Cuba — that’s why we’re so wary of what’s happening, because this is the way things happened there,” she said.
She added that even routine moments, such as speaking Spanish in public, are now a cause concern for her and her family.
“When we’re out with the family, it’s very natural to speak Spanish,” she said.
In a separate interview earlier this month on the Spanish television program “El Hormiguero,” Estefan spoke openly about her concerns for Latino Americans.
According to Spanish outlet ARA, she said that “it scares her a little” to carry her passport for fear of being questioned if she is heard “speaking Spanish” in public.
“It would be incredible if I were arrested for speaking Spanish. I hope it doesn’t come to this,” she said.
While emphasizing that immigration should be “legal and organized,” Estefan condemned what she described as harsh treatment of migrants.
She said she has seen “families they are separating, how they have mistreated many people and thrown women to the ground in front of their children.”
When the conversation turned to reports that Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny had stayed away from U.S. tours because of immigration raids, Estefan replied, “Yes sir, but look now, he’ll be singing at the Super Bowl,” she said. “Come on, Benito, how great!”
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