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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the arrest in the state of Virginia of an undocumented Cuban immigrant with a criminal background marked by four convictions for drug trafficking and two for possession of cocaine, all felonies, according to an official statement issued by the federal agency on Monday.
This concerns the Cuban citizen Eduardo Pérez Legrá, who was arrested on May 4 by agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Newport News, Virginia, in possession of multiple drugs, including fentanyl, cocaine, and oxycodone.
During a search following his arrest, authorities seized 19.5 grams of cocaine, 101 oxycodone pills, five fentanyl pills, and 27 sublingual films of suboxone, individually packaged, the statement specified.
The Cuban had obtained permanent residence in the U.S. in 2004, but lost it due to a felony conviction he received in 2011, a penalty that also made him subject to deportation.
On May 15, 2012, an immigration judge from the Department of Justice issued a final deportation order against Pérez Legrá, but - according to the DHS - "the Obama administration released him" that same year without carrying out the expulsion.
Regarding the arrest of the Cuban and other immigrants from several countries mentioned in the statement, the acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, Lauren Bis, took aim at the governor of Virginia, Abigail Spanberger.
"Another day, another illegal immigrant with a criminal record arrested in Virginia, the sanctuary state of Governor Abigail Spanberger," he stated, referencing Pérez Legrá's prior convictions for drug trafficking and the drugs that were seized at the time of his arrest.
The official warned that "Virginia is a hotspot for crime committed by illegal immigrants," and that "these criminals flock to the sanctuary state because they know that Governor Spanberger and her political colleagues who support this cause will protect them."
Bis stated that during the first few days in office, Spanberger signed executive orders that prohibited state cooperation with ICE, in addition to rescinding the state and local 287(g) agreements. The governor, affiliated with the Democratic Party, took office on January 17, 2026.
The statement referenced a series of arrests carried out by ICE since February of immigrants with criminal records for serious offenses, coming from different countries, who, according to DHS, benefited from Virginia's sanctuary policies.
The undersecretary Bis has reiterated that under the orders of President Donald Trump and the DHS Secretary, Markwayne Mullin, "ICE will continue to arrest and deport undocumented criminal immigrants who should never have been in our country."
The recent statement from the DHS did not mention whether the final deportation order for Cuban Pérez Legrá, issued in 2012, may not have been executed due to the reluctance of the Havana regime to accept back nationals with criminal records who have served prison sentences in the U.S., particularly those who arrived in that country before 2017.
This practice of the Cuban regime has begun to reverse during the Trump administration. At the beginning of this year, it was announced that the island's government agreed to accept deportees with criminal records, which has facilitated the execution of pending removal orders that have been in place for years.
Other cases of Cubans arrested for ties to drug trafficking
The case of Eduardo Pérez Legrá adds to a series of recent arrests of Cubans with criminal records for drug trafficking in the United States.
On May 7th, ICE arrested another undocumented Cuban in Hialeah with a prior conviction for cocaine trafficking.
In April, six Cubans were charged with federal offenses for fentanyl distribution in the Tampa area, facing sentences ranging from 10 years to life in prison.
That same month, a Cuban resident in Hialeah pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute over 135 kilograms of marijuana and five firearms, and is facing a minimum sentence of 40 years.
But the chain of cases extends beyond U.S. borders: in April, a Cuban was detained in Cancun with an active arrest warrant issued in Tampa for conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, and in March, another Cuban was arrested in Ecuador wanted by the U.S. for drug trafficking and identified as a member of the criminal organization Los Choneros.
The arrests of Cubans by ICE have surged by 463% between October 2024 and January 2026, according to a report from the Cato Institute based on official government data.
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