Related videos:
Broward law enforcement officials handed over Cuban citizen Noslan Ruiz Bernal to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after he was arrested for the second time for armed burglary in that county of South Florida, authorities reported.
Ruiz Bernal already had a record for the same type of crime: in 2014, shortly after obtaining his permanent residency card in the United States, he was convicted of armed burglary of a vehicle in Davie, Florida, and served just over a year in prison before being released back into the community, ICE revealed in a post on the social media platform X.
This time, local authorities acted differently. Broward County, which participates in the 287(g) cooperation program between local and federal agencies, obeyed the immigration detention order issued by ICE and transferred the detainee to federal custody instead of releasing them.
ICE explicitly highlighted this action: "Broward County honored ICE's detainer order and handed him over to federal agents instead of releasing him back into the community to reoffend, something that sanctuary jurisdictions are unwilling to do."
The case of Ruiz Bernal was included by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in a statement that reported the arrests made on April 30 of foreign nationals convicted of multiple serious crimes, including murder and sexual assault on minors.
Lauren Bis, acting assistant secretary of the DHS, stated that "ICE will continue to eliminate these threats to the public safety of communities."
The 287(g) program, reactivated and significantly expanded since January 2025, allows certain local agencies to collaborate with federal authorities in identifying, locating, and detaining undocumented immigrants in the U.S. The plan currently includes over 800 participating agencies nationwide.
Florida is the state with the highest number of active agreements under that program, partly because a state law from 2019 requires counties with detention centers to enter into those agreements, which sets it apart from the so-called sanctuary jurisdictions.
The case of Ruiz Bernal is part of an unprecedented escalation in ICE operations against Cubans with criminal records in Florida. Recently, a Cuban federal fugitive was captured in Hialeah after accumulating two arrest warrants, and another citizen from the island was arrested in Miami under the Laken Riley Law, the first legislation signed by President Donald Trump on January 29, 2025, which requires the DHS to detain undocumented individuals accused of theft or other serious crimes without bail.
The detentions of Cubans increased by 463% between October 2024 and January 2026, according to the Cato Institute. At the same time, the approvals for permanent residency for Cubans plummeted by 99.8% during that same period, dropping from more than 10,000 monthly to just 15 in January 2026.
Filed under: