The Cuban billionaire behind the pro-immigrant billboards in Miami: ‘If I have to spend $30 million in this fight, I will spend it’

A few months ago, the Cuban-American philanthropist Michael B. Fernández was walking his dogs outside his Miami home when he saw a strange plastic bag in the driveway that someone had thrown over the fence. Upon opening it, he found a pound of ground beef with a post-it that said: “We know you like dogs.” “That’s an indirect threat,” Fernández recalls. And just two weeks ago, as he was leaving a business lunch, a car pulled up next to his, the driver rolled down the window and said, “Mr. Fernández, you should stop talking this shit.”

“At that moment, I decided: ‘I will not be intimidated’,” says Fernández, 73, who emigrated to the U.S. at the age of 12 from his native Manzanillo, Cuba and went on to build a fortune valued in the billions of dollars. Known for his substantial donations to cancer research, college scholarships and advocacy for immigrants, among many other causes, he has always tried to keep a low profile. Until now, that is. Since last April, he has been anonymously funding a campaign that places billboards along major highways in South Florida criticizing local Cuban-American congressmembers and State Secretary Marco Rubio for their stand on immigration. The billboards bear messages such as “deporting immigrants is cruel.” Following recent threats, Fernández has decided to come forward publicly.

“I hope people know who’s behind it, because up to now no one knew who was behind it. I’m sure I will extend the group of donors that I have now that it’s out,” Fernández says in a telephone interview with EL PAÍS. “I have received at least a dozen or two dozen emails offering to contribute,” he adds. The philanthropist hasn’t specified how much money he’s spent on the billboards, but assures that “if I have to spend $10, $20, $30 million in this fight in my community, I will spend it.”

Fernández, who is known as Mike, says it is not his intention to be a leader, but he also can’t ignore his own history as an immigrant who, because of a dictatorship, lost his home, his family, his friends and his language, and had to reinvent himself in a foreign land that became his home. The United States gave him everything, and he is deeply grateful. That’s why he enlisted in the Army when he was of military age. “My country, this country, means more to me than to many people born in this country because I come from a place that I lost,” he says. “I owe this nation much, and I will give it all that I can to help it get out of this terrible time.”

The terrible time he is talking about is the anti-immigrant crusade of the Donald Trump administration, which has promised mass deportations, established a quota of 3,000 daily arrests, and canceled temporary protections and humanitarian programs for hundreds of thousands of people, who have been left in limbo overnight. In South Florida, home to one of the world’s largest Latino diasporas, immigration detention centers are overcrowded with people, most of them with no criminal record, who have been arrested even outside courthouses.

“The direction that we’re going as a nation is totally opposite to what the Constitution says, to the way that Americans treated me as a child,” says Fernández. “I don’t object to many of the provisions of the Administrations and their policies. What I do object to is the cruelty and the treatment of others as if they were animals. These people that are being detained, who are mostly without any criminal history, do not deserve it. They are good for our nation, just like the Irish, the Italians, every previous group that came into this country who have built this country. Take a look at Miami. It is a city built by immigrants. And this administration wants us out. All of us.”

For years, Fernández was affiliated with the Republican Party, to which he made significant donations, but he hasn’t had any political affiliation for more than a decade. “Right now, I don’t believe in either party. So I feel that I have to speak only for myself. And I have the capital to do so.”

The billboards he’s funded are a sign of his frustration with both parties, and he chose Miami because it’s where he lives. He thinks both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party are acting for their own benefit and not for the benefit of their nation. He started doing this on his own. “I am not looking for publicity. I don’t want it. I’ve never sought it out,” he says, adding that he is not in favor of open borders. “I’m not a Republican. I’m not a Democrat. I’m an American. I’m an American with values” who wants to see the virtues of his country and the respect his country had around the world restored, he adds.

“They’re cowards”

Fernández tells this newspaper that he wants to enter politics. He’s focused on replacing the three local congressmembers targeted by his billboards: Mario Díaz-Balart, Carlos Giménez and María Elvira Salazar, all Republicans. The billionaire says he hasn’t been involved with any political action committees to date, but believes he will do so from now on. “To this point all I’ve been trying to do is try to wake up our community as to where we are and who represents us. But moving forward, I think I can help identify people of character, a persona seria who wants to stand up for what is right in our community,” he says.

In his opinion, the three legislators “have had enough time to listen to this community and see with their own eyes the cruelty that they’re not willing to speak against,” and the time has come to replace them. “I am sure that these representatives meant well when they ran for office. And people like Mario Diaz-Balart, with decades in the House, I’m sure that at one point he meant well. But these guys are drunk with power and they have to be removed. These guys have lost their backbone. They may talk tough, but that is really to cover their cowardice. They’re cowards. They will not stand up to a weak man that is pretending to be strong. And that is Trump."

Congressmembers Díaz-Balart, Giménez and Salazar did not respond to a request for comment for this story. The State Department also did not respond.

“I’ve been blessed, in business, in many ways. I’ve built 32 companies that have been sold primarily to public companies, so money is not an issue for me. Principles and morals are the issue for me,” he maintains. “We have no candidates. So I am spending my money knowing there may be zero results to the efforts. I believe the right thing to do is to help those less fortunate than me. I’ve been blessed. And I’ll spend whatever it takes to make my point.”

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition