Melody González Pedraza, identified as a Cuban regime judge known for issuing excessive prison sentences to peaceful dissidents who entered the United States under Biden-era policies, is now slated for deportation, Martí Noticias reported on Wednesday.
González Pedraza served as the former president of the Municipal Court of Encrucijada, Villa Clara. Last year, the non-government organization Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FHRC) included her in the organization’s public list of known Castro regime repressors due to “countless human rights violations” and for her involvement in the unjust sentencing of four young Cuban men — all under the age of 30 — to up to four years in prison in 2024 on dubious “assault” charges.
Families of the unjustly convicted men said their relatives were subjected to an unfair trial where neither evidence nor witnesses that could substantiate the accusations were presented. This month, the People’s Supreme Court of Cuba (TSP) acknowledged that judicial irregularities were committed by González Pedraza but refused to review the trial against the four men, who remain unjustly imprisoned at press time.
The Cuban judge reportedly arrived in the United States in June 2024 as one of the beneficiaries of President Joe Biden’s “Humanitarian Parole” program, a now-defunct initiative launched in January 2023 that allowed up to 30,000 Cuban, Nicaraguan, Haitian, and Venezuelan nationals per month to request entry to the United States and stay and work for a period of “up to two years.”
Although the parole program provided González Pedraza with a travel permit that allowed her to board a plane to the United States, authorities from the Tampa International Airport ultimately denied her entry to U.S. territory — prompting the judge to immediately request asylum.
Martí Noticias reported that, according to information from the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), González Pedraza received an official order of deportation signed by an immigration judge in Pompano Beach, Florida, on Wednesday. According to the EOIR records reviewed by the outlet, Gonzalez Pedraza has no future hearings scheduled and has a deadline of June 20, 2025, to file an appeal with the Board of Immigration. González Pedraza’s husband was reportedly deported in recent weeks after his asylum request was denied.
“The victims of Melody Gonzalez, both in Cuba and in the United States today can feel that justice was done in this great country. Asylum is deserved by the repressed, not the repressors,” Cuban human right activist Samuel Rodriguez told Martí Noticias.
FHRC welcomed the deportation proceedings against the Cuban judge in a statement in which the organization reiterated González Pedraza’s role in the unjust sentencing of the four young Cuban men and her inclusion in the public list of verified Castro regime repressors.
“This case underscores the importance of denouncing those who participated in the repression in Cuba and seek impunity abroad. International justice should not be a refuge for accomplices of the dictatorship,” FHRC’s message read.
During González Pedraza’s year-long U.S. asylum court proceedings, Cuban lawyer Santiago Alpízar reportedly presented evidence to the court that demonstrated González Pedraza’s role as a repressive official of the Cuban Communist Party, including a statement allegedly signed by Encrucijada’s two other judges in which they claimed that they had not participated in the deliberation or drafting of the sentence against the four Cuban men.
Cuban lawyer Maylín Fernández Suris asserted to Diario las Américas that González Pedraza’s case should be a warning to Cuban judges, prosecutors, and lawyers who would “rethink” their role within the Cuban regime’s repressive apparatus and “assume responsibility for the consequences of their decisions.”
FHRC denounced in August that at least 115 known Castro regime representatives now reside in the United States as of February 2023 — several of whom successfully entered U.S. territory thanks to immigration policies implemented by the Biden administration.
Last week, Martí Noticias reported that Amalio Alfaro Matos, another Castro regime judge, now resides Tampa, Florida, thanks to the Biden administration’s parole program. Alfaro Matos has been widely described as a “judicial executioner” of the Cuban regime due to his participation in the sentencing of several Cuban political prisoners. Narciso Amador Fernández Ramírez, a publicly-known propagandist of the Cuban communist regime, also availed himself of the parole program and reportedly resides in Homestead, Florida, since March 2024.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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