MIAMI — Several Cuban immigrants slated for deportation back to Cuba were instead freed from detention Thursday, after Immigration and Customs Enforcement accidentally posted their confidential data online last month and a U.S. official inadvertently passed the information on to the Cuban government.
“I am super happy. It was a saga to get out of Cuba. Thanks to my family who did everything possible and impossible to get me out of here,” said Ronaldo Rodriguez Torres shortly after leaving immigration custody at the Broward Transitional Center, a detention center for immigrants in Pompano Beach.
Mailien Gonzalez Rodriguez, his wife, told the Miami Herald that the couple had entered the U.S. together in late October. But while she was released following immigration processing, he had been detained. On Thursday, they were finally reunited after months of wondering what would happen to her spouse.
“I am so happy to finally have him here. It seemed like a dream, even yesterday,” she said.
Rodriguez Torres said that now that he has been released, he hopes to study and work so he can once again work in physical rehabilitation, the work he did in Cuba.
“Thanks to this country, that is giving me a fighting chance,” he said.
Four formerly detained Cuban migrants told the Miami Herald that there were at least 17 at Broward Transitional Center who had been affected by the government’s unprecedented data dump and who were in the process of being released.
Relatives first got word that their families would be freed from custody on Tuesday night, after receiving calls from ICE officials confirming the personal details of their loved ones in immigration custody. For the family members — who spent Christmas anguishing over whether their husbands, sons, brothers and cousins might be sent back to Cuba and experience persecution because of the leak — the development was welcome news.
Several family members waited for their loved ones to be released from the Broward facility on Thursday at noon, holding balloons that said “Welcome home” and others that had American flags printed on them.
Samuel Sanchez, 21, of Havana, was among them. He told the Herald that he and his 26-year-old brother Andy Garcia had surrendered to border authorities and gone through the same processing while crossing the border into Texas at Piedras Negras. But while he was released the next day, his brother was kept in immigration custody.
“Three months, day after day, I’ve been waiting for his release,” he said.
Once released and reunited with family, Garcia said that he “had finally been able to leave this nightmare behind.”
The release of the Cuban migrants at the Broward Transitional Center came a month after ICE mistakenly uploaded a document onto its website that contained the names, nationalities and detention centers of more than 6,000 migrants who had sought protection in the United States, claiming fear of persecution or torture if returned to their home countries.
Then, in early December, a Department of Homeland Security official linked a list of potential deportees to the data dump during a phone call with the Cuban government, indirectly confirming that some of the people the U.S. government wanted to send back to Cuba had fled the island and sought protection from persecution.
Relatives of the detainees organized protests over Whatsapp and consoled each other as they weathered the uncertainty. On Christmas Eve, they gathered outside the Broward facility, holding posters over their heads and demanding the freedom of the detained Cuban migrants.
Several of the Cuban detainees shared their stories with the Herald which had several things in common: They had been placed in detention after leaving Cuba and crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in October. Despite claiming political persecution, they had failed their so-called credible-fear screenings in front of asylum officers, and later a judge.
ICE sent them letters about the Nov. 28 leak, and later a second letter informing them about the Dec. 7 conversation between the U.S. and Cuban government. It said that Havana could assume they sought refuge in the U.S. and that their cases would be evaluated on a case-by-case basis to determine whether they should be freed from custody.
Rodriguez Torres said that he had been released with an order of supervision. He needs to report to ICE’s Miramar location next month. Meanwhile, at least three others were released on a year-long parole.
“I am going to go celebrate my freedom, something we have been waiting for for a long time,” said Garcia.
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