Arianni Collot, a Cuban resident in the United States, posted a video on TikTok explaining why she wears an electronic ankle monitor on her foot, and surprised her followers by describing the device as "a blessing."
The video, which accumulated over 203,000 views, emerged in response to a follower who asked her about the shackles. Arianni clarified from the beginning that the device "isn't that big" and went on to explain in detail the chain of administrative errors that led her to wear it.
According to the account, it all started when he moved from his first address in the U.S. without properly updating his information with all the immigration authorities. His lawyer changed the address with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), but not with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "A month after I left, my court letters started arriving at that house," he explained.
The immigration judge continued to send the notices to the previous address, where she no longer lived and where she had had a conflict with the occupants. Since she did not receive any notifications, Arianni did not attend her court hearings. "The judge, since I didn’t go to any of his courts, determined that I was on the run," she said.
However, Arianni emphasizes a key distinction that many immigrants are unaware of: meetings with ICE and hearings before the immigration judge are separate processes. "I never missed any of my ICE appointments that I was supposed to attend; I went to all of them, absolutely all of my ICE appointments," she stated.
The Cuban woman, who entered the U.S. initiating a political asylum process and a year and a day later applied for residency under the Cuban Adjustment Act, acknowledges that the origin of the problem was her own ignorance. "I carry this shackles due to my own mistake, due to my own negligence that when one is newly arrived in this country, one is a bit ignorant of the laws," she admitted.
He is currently fighting the case before the judge, presenting evidence that he no longer resided at that address when the notifications arrived. "Thank God I'm fighting everything with the judge because I have proof that I didn't live in that house anymore and that those papers never reached my hands," he pointed out, adding that "everything is turning out well, everything is getting better."
In that context, Arianni explains why she views the ankle monitor as an advantage rather than a stigma: "Today I have come to understand, thanks to many people around me, that having an ankle monitor right now, given my situation, is a blessing, and it's better to have an ankle monitor than to be either imprisoned or deported."
Arianni's case is not isolated. ICE has intensified the use of electronic ankle monitors since 2025, and by September of that year, it reported nearly 30,000 individuals with the device active and over 181,000 in the Alternatives to Detention program. In July 2025, three Cubans released by ICE with electronic ankle monitors went viral with a humorous reaction to the device, and in January 2026, a Cuban woman was released with an ankle monitor after 25 days in detention by ICE, which questioned her U.S. citizenship.
The confusion between ICE appointments and immigration court hearings is one of the most common traps for newcomers, and Arianni's testimony gives a face to a reality faced by thousands of Cubans in the U.S. as they navigate a complex legal system without enough guidance.
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