Immigration Paroles Cuban Boxers Defectors Left Olympic Team To Escape Communist Regime

Two Cuban Olympic boxers who are seeking political asylum in the United States walked out of a detention facility Wednesday after being granted parole by immigration authorities.

Looking relieved but tired, Ramon Garbey and Joel Casamayor were released into the care of their lawyers at the El Centro Immigration Processing Center, where they spent the last three days.

“We needed our freedom,” said Garbey, moments after being released and asked why they left Cuba. “I felt very pressured there.”

The decision by immigration authorities in San Diego means the boxers will not be detained at the processing center while their applications for political asylum are reviewed, officials said.

“It means we’re only halfway home. We still have more to do in court,” said immigration attorney Frank Ronzio. “They’re only concerned with leaving Fidel Castro.”

Wearing warm-up pants and T-shirts emblazoned with stars and stripes, Garbey and Casamayor spoke briefly to reporters. Attorneys had said they would take the boxers to Los Angeles.

Garbey, 25, and Casamayor, 24, had been at the immigration processing center, 115 miles east of San Diego, since Sunday night, shortly after they appeared at the San Ysidro port of entry, seeking asylum.

The boxers deserted their teammates during a training camp in Guadalajara, Mexico. Both said they feared persecution because they refused to support Cuba’s communist government.

During an interview with immigration officials Monday, the boxers were asked to reconstruct their treatment in Cuba and at the Olympic training camp, said Al Rogers, a spokesman for the fighters’ attorney.

Garbey and Casamayor reported being abused and neglected for years for refusing to sign a document that pledged their loyalty to President Castro’s communist regime, Rogers said.

The men were considered strong contenders for gold medals. Cuba won seven golds in the 1992 Olympics, including one by Casamayor, who has fought at 125 pounds. Garbey was the 1993 world champion at 178 pounds.

“They very easily could have won the gold and then defected, but they chose not to fight Castro’s war,” Rogers said.

The boxers have no family in the United States and they do not speak English, Rogers said.

Casamayor, who comes from Guantanamo, left behind his 8-year-old daughter and her mother. Casamayor and the woman have been separated for some time, Rogers said.

Garbey, who is unmarried, left a son on the Caribbean island.

More than 40 athletes and officials from Cuba’s delegation defected during the 1993 Central American and Caribbean Games in Puerto Rico.