Form I-131
USCIS travel-document form used for humanitarian parole applications, now the only individual route off the island for Cubans.
Last refreshed: 17 July 2026
Cuban state security knew about a dissident's US parole filing before Washington ruled on it; how?
Timeline for Form I-131
Mentioned in: State Security rang about his US visa
Cuba DispatchBackground
On 9 July 2026, the day his five-year sentence formally expired, Cuban State Security telephoned activist Anamely Ramos with dissident Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara on speakerphone to ask directly about the status of the Form I-131 humanitarian parole application his team had filed with USCIS.
Form I-131, Application for Travel Document, is the standard USCIS filing used to request advance parole into the United States, including on humanitarian grounds. It has become the only individual relocation route available to Cubans since the Trump administration ended the collective CHNV parole programme in March 2025; team member Yanelys Núñez has described working the filing for several weeks as an 'escape route'.
No USCIS adjudication or public US government statement on the petition had surfaced as of 17 July 2026. That the filing's status is known to Cuban State Security before any public US ruling is itself notable, and points to close monitoring of Otero Alcántara's case on the island.