Cuban migrants awaiting deportation are freed after U.S. accidentally leaked their info

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 Ronald Rodriguez Torres shortly after leaving immigration custody at the Broward Transitional Center, a detention center for migrants in Pompano Beach.

Mailien Gonzalez, 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 she spent months 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.

Several formerly detained Cuban migrants, as well as relatives of the detained, told the Herald that there were as many as 26 at Broward Transitional Center who had been affected by the government’s unprecedented data dump and who had been released or were in the process of being released. Many received year-long paroles, while others were put under supervision orders to check in with authorities, they added.

Of 103 potential deportees the U.S. government had discussed with Cuba, 46 Cubans had been affected by the leak, according to the Los Angeles Times. The roughly two dozen released Thursday had all been affected by the leak, according to four former detainees, and most had also been on deportation lists to Cuba.

One Cuban migrant said that all nine who had been moved to Broward from a detention facility in South Texas had received a letter from ICE that confirmed they had been on a list of potential deportees to Cuba. Meanwhile, two of the migrants who came from a group of 17 transferred from the Joe Corley Detention Center near Houston said as many as 15 of them had received a letter that said the same.

Meanwhile, several relatives of Cubans affected by the leak still have loved ones detained in Texas. Cubans at the Joe Corley center had previously told the Herald that the Cubans detained there had either had their personal data uploaded on ICE’s webpage or had been on a deportation list sent to the Cuban government along with those affected by the leak. In either case, this meant that island officials could thus assume that they had also sought protections in the U.S.

Family members said Thursday they had been getting calls to pick up relatives detained in Joe Corley, and that some had even already been released. It was unclear how many affected by the leak had been held there in the first place.

Wendy Court, whose husband Santiago Saez is still detained at the Joe Corley Detention Center and who received a letter about the phone call with the Cuban government, said that ICE officials had reached out to her family so they could book an early January plane ticket to Miami for Saez.

Meanwhile, two relatives of Cubans held in South Texas Processing Center said that their family affected by the Nov. 28 leak were still there, but that they had not yet gotten word of their release.

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 languishing over whether their husbands, sons, brothers and cousins might be sent back to Cuba and experience persecution as a result of the leak — the development was welcome news.

They 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 to enter Texas. 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.”

Janet Berrio draped an American flag over the shoulders of her nephew Ricardo Acosta Chirino and brother Barbaro Alvarez Castro as they stepped out of the detention center.

“This is the country of freedom,” she told the Herald after leaving the facility.

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.

Melissa Contreras, a Miami-based immigration lawyer who represents three Cuban clients whose information was leaked, said that Thursday’s release represented a “great victory.”

“I am very happy about the release, and the effort of these families and the detainees made, and most of all that ICE is trying to correct their mistake. This is clear evidence that the error has an impact on human rights and life and freedom,” she said.

But Contreras wondered what the federal government will do about nationals from other countries with governments that violate human rights and engage in political 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.

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 their names had been on a list of potential deportees to Cuba, and 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.

On Thursday, the Cuban immigrants reunited with family after months of separation and celebrated their release. They want to get to know South Florida, find work in their fields, and make a life in the United States.

“I am going to go celebrate my freedom, something we have been waiting for for a long time,” said Garcia.

This story was originally published December 29, 2022 at 2:05 PM.