ICE in Florida detaining Cubans during routine immigration appointments

MIAMI — Federal authorities in South Florida have recently detained at least 18 Cubans during scheduled immigration appointments, local attorneys say, highlighting that a group that has historically enjoyed special immigration benefits is not immune to the Trump administration’s intensified mass deportation efforts.

In recent years, hundreds of thousands of Cubans who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border have received I-220A forms, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement document that records someone’s release from custody subject to certain conditions.

That paperwork does not confer lawful status. Federal judges have ruled it can’t be used to apply for green cards under the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, which lets Cuban nationals get permanent residency a year and a day after touching U.S. soil. Cubans with I-220As must instead seek asylum or find an alternative path to stay in the United States, like a family-based green-card petition.

It’s Cubans with I-220As, primarily women, whom ICE has detained at regular check-ins in the agency’s field office in Miramar, attorneys say. Their detentions mark another way in which the experiences of newly arrived Cubans are different from previous generations that widely enjoyed special treatment in the federal immigration system.

Under the Biden administration, ICE primarily focused on detaining those who were public safety and national security threats. As long as they did not have criminal records, Cubans with I-220As were not taken into custody.

That appears to have changed under the Trump administration.

“They were always vulnerable. It’s just somebody has decided to take action,” said Miami immigration attorney Mark Prada. “It’s all discretion and priority decisions. And right now the priority is to deport every person under the sun.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to Herald questions about whether Cubans with I-220As were now considered a detention and deportation priority for ICE. Trump has said he wants to deport the millions of undocumented people who are in the United States.

“It is the policy of the United States to faithfully execute the immigration laws against all inadmissible and removable aliens,” Trump wrote in an executive order on his first day in office.

Among the Cubans recently detained is Beatriz Monteagudo, 25, her friend Johan Ariel told the Miami Herald. The pair texted each other daily. But the last message he received from Monteagudo was March 10. The Cuban woman, who got an I-220A after entering the U.S. in January 2024, was heading to her required check-in appointment in Miramar.

Ariel quickly grew worried that he hadn’t heard from her following the appointment. When he searched the ICE detainee locator service online, her name showed up. Then came Monteagudo’s call.

When she called Ariel from the detention facility, she told him she was with about 18 others who had also been taken into custody after showing up for their routine appointments. Monteagudo told him she wasn’t told why they were there, aside from officers mentioning the laws had changed.

To date, neither Monteagudo nor Ariel has gotten an answer, he says. And this week, Monteagudo, who was living in Miami, was transferred to a detention facility in San Diego.

“I am completely left in the dark right now,” Ariel told the Herald. “I am so worried and have no resources to help her.”

Ariel, who came from Cuba two years ago, fears for Monteagudo’s safety if she were to be returned to her homeland. She faced issues with the island’s authorities for participating in the widespread July 11, 2021, anti-government protests.

“If she returns to Cuba, she will be imprisoned right away,” Ariel said. “That’d be destroying her life.”

Rebeca Sanchez-Roig, an immigration attorney with Catholic Charities Legal Services of Miami, described the ICE decision to detain the Cuban women without criminal records as “unusual.”

“But while unusual, it’s not legally impossible,” she added.

Cuba doesn’t consistently accept American deportation flights — as many as 42,000 Cuban nationals remain in the U.S. despite having deportation orders. That means that deportation to Cuba is a headache for the federal government.

Several Latin American countries have agreed to accept U.S. deportees from other countries, and experts warn that Cubans could also be sent to Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama. Under a deal it brokered with the Biden administration, Mexico already takes back Cubans who arrive at the southwest border. An El Salvador mega-prison recently received hundreds of Venezuelans as part of a deal the Trump administration made with Salvadorean president Nayib Bukele last month.

Wilfredo Allen, a Miami-based immigration attorney, represents an asylum seeker who was among the recently detained Cubans. The cases he’s learned of are mostly women. He said it’s the first time he’s seeing Cubans with I-220As with pending immigration cases or green card applications and no criminal histories end up in ICE custody.

“It’s creating a big panic,” Allen said.

Laura de la Caridad Sanchez, 27, is one of those Cuban women with I-220As whom ICE detained as she was attending an immigration appointment in Miramar, her attorney, Eduardo Soto, said.

Soto said he doesn’t know why Sanchez, who was living in Coral Gables with her mother, and the others were detained; he added that immigration officials cited a memo and said it “came down from powers that be in Washington.”

Soto said he’s prepared to file a federal lawsuit if she is not released.

“This step was taken to detain her and place everyone in a panic,” Soto said. “It’s a waste of the government’s time and money and her time and money.”

U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar of Miami, who has positioned herself as a champion for Cubans with I-220As, confirmed on X that she was aware of the recent detentions at ICE’s office in Miramar.

“I recently spoke with ICE and Homeland Security officials and asked them to not detain Cubans with I-220A and allow for their asylum cases to be heard,” Salazar said in a statement posted in Spanish. “As you all know well, during the Biden administration I sought a solution for Cubans with I-220A, and I will not stop until it’s no longer necessary.”

Miami U.S. Reps. Carlos Gimenez and Mario Diaz-Balart, who like Salazar are Cuban American, didn’t respond to Herald requests for comment. They have not released statements about the detainees. However, Diaz-Balart in 2023 expressed outrage with the Biden administration over its I-220A policies affecting Cubans “which are causing confusion, chaos, and injustice.”

Prada described the fact that so many Cubans have been given I-220A documents as “a backdoor repeal of the Cuban Adjustment Act.” He has been at the forefront of several lawsuits that have resulted in Cubans with I-220As obtaining parole to remain in the U.S. and gain permanent residency.

Lawyers note that for South Florida’s Cuban community, many of whom supported Trump’s presidential campaign, the rapid immigration enforcement changes may come as a surprise.

“People come out in favor of the face-eating leopards,” Prada said. “And then they get surprised when the leopard eats their face.”

The detainment of Cubans by ICE in Miramar is stoking fear in South Florida’s immigrant community, said Allen, a Miami immigration attorney for over three decades. He said he believes the Trump administration is trying to “intimidate” people and cause panic so they voluntarily return to their home countries.

The panic, however, isn’t only affecting immigrants, Allen said. Immigration officers are being pressured for not detaining enough people, and judges and government lawyers are also being strong-armed into rejecting people’s efforts to stay in the U.S.

Allen said people with I-220A, despite their fears, should continue to show up to their appointments and court dates.

“They should hold faith that this year a federal court will rule in favor of them.”

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