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Two Cuban citizens with convictions for violent crimes were arrested this week in Florida by agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), authorities reported.
According to a statement published by the Department of Homeland Security, ICE arrested José Rivera Orta this Monday, an undocumented immigrant from Cuba convicted of lewd and lascivious behavior against a minor in Miami-Dade County, Florida.
On Tuesday, he was taken into custody by the federal agency Rigoberto Iglesias Díaz, whose criminal record includes a conviction for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Miami.
The arrests announced at the beginning of the week are part of the ongoing offensive by ICE under the strict immigration policy of President Donald Trump's administration, which prioritizes the detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants with a criminal history, deemed by authorities as a threat to public safety. Many of them are presented as "The Worst of the Worst" by the DHS.
Regarding the recent arrests, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, stated that "ICE arrested truly depraved individuals, including murderers, pedophiles, sexual predators, and violent offenders," and warned: "We will not allow illegal immigrants with criminal records to roam freely in our communities and terrorize innocent Americans."
The DHS has reiterated that "almost 70% of ICE arrests involve undocumented immigrants who have been accused or convicted of a crime in the United States."
The two cases of Cubans arrested this week add to a series of detentions of island citizens with criminal backgrounds in Florida and other states that have been recorded in recent weeks.
During Easter, ICE arrested Reinier Fuentes Armentero, Yordan Carreras Céspedes, and Israel Serrano Aguilera in various counties in Florida. Their criminal records include possession of child sexual exploitation material, vehicle theft, and aggravated harassment.
Last Thursday, Alexander García Peñate was arrested in Pennsylvania, who has a previous conviction for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Florida leads in the number of Cuban detainees by ICE, with 708 cases recorded as of December 2025, concentrated in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Collier.
Since the beginning of Trump's second presidential term in January 2025 until the deportation flight to Havana on April 16, a total of 1,992 Cubans have been returned to the island, bringing the total to 5,377 during both terms of the Republican president.
The Cuban government began accepting nationals with criminal records back since early 2026, which has facilitated the pace of deportations. The first flight of the year to the island, on February 9, transported 170 Cubans; at least fifty of them had convictions for serious crimes such as homicide, sexual assault, kidnapping, and drug trafficking.
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