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More than eight months after being detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Cuban dissidents María Luisa Arango Presibal and Nilo Gilbert Arencibia remain held in separate detention centers, with signed deportation orders and without the courts having resolved the legal appeals filed to prevent their expulsion, according to a report published by MyRGV.com.
The couple, with a long history of pro-democracy activism in Cuba, was arrested on October 24, 2025, while attending a routine appointment with immigration authorities in New York. Their detention occurred just a few days before a scheduled asylum hearing on October 29.
Since then, they have remained separated. Arango Presibal is held at the El Valle Detention Center in Raymondville, Texas, while Arencibia is at the Adams County Correctional Center near Natchez, Mississippi.
On January 8, 2026, the authorities signed an order to deport Arango Presibal to Cuba. Two days earlier, on January 6, another order was issued to transfer Arencibia to Ecuador.
Their lawyers argue that any of those deportations could put their lives in grave danger due to the history of political persecution and violence that both endured for years in Cuba.
"They are two of the few people who have fought tirelessly for democracy in Cuba," affirmed Diana Albite, an immigration attorney who has represented them pro bono since 2022. "They have been tortured, assaulted, and physically and emotionally mistreated for years until they were expelled from their country."
Arango Presibal was involved in opposition organizations such as the Ladies in White and the United Antitotalitarian Forum (FANTU), while Arencibia participated in the Varela Project and was also a member of FANTU in Santa Clara.
The persecution they reported experiencing on the island included episodes of extreme violence. In November 2014, Arango Presibal was stabbed by a supporter of the Cuban regime and was left in critical condition, according to a report at the time by CNN en Español.
Less than a year later, in August 2015, Arencibia was struck by a vehicle on the outskirts of Santa Clara in an incident that Guillermo Fariñas, national coordinator of FANTU, reported as an assassination attempt orchestrated by Cuban counterintelligence agents.
"Nilo was tortured many times. They tried to kill him, and what they do is a typical tactic of the Cuban government," Albite asserted. "They try to run someone over to make it look like an accident."
After years of harassment, both were forcibly expelled from Cuba on November 18, 2016, and sent to Trinidad and Tobago. However, they did not find a safe environment there either, due to the close ties between that country and the Cuban government, according to their advocates.
The couple finally arrived in the United States on October 30, 2021, crossing the Texas border and settling in New York. Since then, they began the asylum application process and regularly attended the required check-ins and submissions mandated by ICE until the time of their arrest.
His legal battle remains ongoing. The case, identified as Arango Presibal v. Venegas et al., is being processed in the Southern District Court of Texas and involves, among other defendants, former Attorney General Pamela Bondi, former ICE Director Todd M. Lyons, and former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.
On June 12, attorney Jim Harrington, founder of the Texas Civil Rights Project, submitted an updated version of a habeas corpus petition on behalf of Arango Presibal. So far, the court has not issued a decision.
"It frustrates me because this is evident," Harrington stated. "It is dangerous for her to be deported to Cuba, and moreover, she has a strong asylum application. Why would she flee if she has a good chance of obtaining it?"
The case occurs amid a tightening of immigration policies towards Cubans in the United States. According to data cited by MyRGV.com, detentions of Cuban citizens by ICE increased by 463% between the end of 2024 and the end of 2025, while over 4,800 Cubans are reported to have been deported since January 2025.
For Albite, the uncertainty regarding the future of its clients is marked by a persistent fear.
"My greatest fear is that they could be killed," he confessed. "They have already tried to do it in every place they have been."
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