A 31-year-old Cuban man, a permanent resident in the United States for over a decade, was arrested by immigration authorities after returning from a trip to the island to visit his ill grandmother.
The case, investigated by Univision journalist Javier Díaz, has raised alarms among thousands of Cubans with a “green card” who have faced minor charges in the past.
Erlan Rafael Arias traveled to Cuba on October 23rd to say goodbye to his grandmother, who was in critical condition. However, upon landing at Miami International Airport, officers from the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detained him during the inspection and, a few hours later, handed him over to ICE. Since then, he has been held in the facility known as Alligator Alcatraz, unsure of what will happen to his future.
His wife, Natalie Castañeda, claims that all Erlan wants is to return home with her and their young daughter. “He hasn't done anything for more than ten years. Honestly, he doesn't even know why they have him detained,” she said, obviously distressed.
A past that returns to destroy a future
Although the charges for which Erlan was arrested occurred nearly a decade ago, today they weigh on him as if they were committed yesterday.
In 2015, he was arrested in Hialeah and charged with theft at a K-Mart. A year later, he faced a charge of conspiracy to commit mailbox theft, for which he completed over a year of probation. However, as confirmed by the attorney who handled his case, in 2017 the petty theft charge was dismissed and he was declared innocent.
But even so, his record does not appear clean in the immigration databases. And that was enough for the authorities to decide to place him in immigration custody after his family visit to Cuba.
The immigration lawyer Wilfredo “Willy” Allen, consulted by the journalist, was emphatic: “Once you have committed a criminal offense in the United States, you are subject to deportation. If you leave the country, you are putting yourself at risk of detention.”
Allen asserts that, although the case was dismissed in court, Arias "should have waited to become a citizen" in order to travel without risk.
He also stated that no permanent resident with a minor offense should leave the country without consulting a lawyer, even if the offense occurred many years ago.
The unexpected blow
The family claims that no one warned them that traveling could have consequences. "He has a document from when his case was dismissed stating that USCIS would not interfere. They never told him he couldn't travel," Natalie explained.
Erlan emigrated to the United States at the age of 21 and had previously traveled to Cuba twice without incident. But now, after this third trip, his life took a devastating turn.
The report by Javier Díaz aims to alert the Cuban community in the United States: even a minor offense, even if dismissed, can have serious immigration consequences for those who are not citizens.
Many permanent residents are unaware that when leaving the country, they may be checked against databases different from those of the court, where those "old charges" still appear.
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