Cuban Track and Field Athlete Daniel Jaime-Pedrozo, 24, was searching for freedom when he secretly boarded a plane from South Carolina to Newark Airport on June 2.
Jaime-Pedrozo was planning to meet his brother Francisco Gonzalez, 50, a Union City resident. The athlete, who suffers from night-blindness, had come to South Carolina from Cuba as a member of the Cuban Track and Field Team competing in the 2001 Pan American Games for the Blind. It was May 28 when he decided to defect to Hudson County and seek political asylum.
“I was looking for freedom from everything,” said Jaime-Pedrozo last week, sitting on the couch of the Union City apartment where he is living with his brother and his family.
After winning three medals; two silver medals and one gold medal, at the games in South Carolina, Jaime-Pedrozo began talking to a Spanish-speaking family that he believed to be Cuban. The family agreed to help Jaime-Pedroza, meeting him at the local McDonald’s one-hour later.
Brushing off lunch with his teammates, Jaime-Pedrozo met the family, who then paid for his plane ticket into Newark and drove him to the airport.
“I was planning to do something like that for years,” said Jaime-Pedrozo, who doesn’t remember the name of the family that helped him. “I tried to bring as many of my medals as I could and the paperwork from my the school I was attending with me.”
Jaime-Pedroza also brought with him two gold medals from the games in Mexico and two medals from the Cuban Nationals in 1999. He said that he has many more medals in Cuba, but was unable to bring them with him.
Since arriving in Hudson County, Jaime-Pedrozo began working with the 30th of November Cuban Movement and Union City Mayor Brian Stack to begin the process of asylum.
Safe in the U.S.
At a conference held on June 7 at the Union City City Hall building, members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Immigration and Naturalization Services interviewed Jaime-Pedrozo and his brother. Sergio Gatria, a spokesperson for the 30th November Cuban Movement who translated for Jaime-Pedrozo, said that he thinks Jaime-Pedrozo’s paperwork will be expedited. Stack said that he has already contacted Rep. Robert Menendez (D-13th Dist.) and Senators Jon Corzine and Robert Torricelli, asking them to write letters to the INS to expedite his paperwork. Normally, this process could take more than one year to complete. But Jaime-Pedrozo may be safe in the meantime. Once a refugee applies for political asylum, the INS cannot deport that person.
Adding obstacles
On June 1, just one day before Jaime-Pedrozo’s escape, Alain Frometa, a swimmer with the Cuban team, disappeared, making Jaime-Pedrozo more skeptical about his plans. Frometa is believed to be in Miami with his father.
According to Gatria, Jaime-Pedrozo began to second-guess his plans after hearing about Frometa’s escape. “He thought it would be harder [after Frometa’s disappearance],” said Gatria. “But he figured he had to do it. It was today or never.”
Jaime-Pedroza left his father, four brothers and one sister behind in Cuba to find his brother in Union City. “I love my family very much,” said Jaime-Pedrozo, who added that leaving his family was a hard decision for him. “But I had to go ahead and have freedom.”
Gonzalez had left Cuba 21 years ago when Jaime-Pedrozo was only 4 years old.
Jaime-Pedroza wants to stay with his brother and his family in Union City. He also has a sister in Miami, but he doesn’t remember her name or know how to locate her.
Jaime-Pedrozo plans to continue his track and field career here in the United States.