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The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) explained this Sunday the reasons behind the arrest of Alina Rosales Aguirreurreta, daughter of the Cuban general Ulises Rosales del Toro, who was apprehended in Florida.
In a statement posted on their official X account, the agency specified that Rosales Aguirreurreta "entered the country in 2023 on a tourist visa, valid until May 20, 2024, and did not obtain permission to remain in the country."
ICE classifies her as a foreign national who exceeded her authorized stay—referred to in English as a nonimmigrant overstay—and is awaiting a hearing before an immigration judge. The agency stated that it will disclose more information if it becomes public.
According to immigration records, Rosales Aguirreurreta entered U.S. territory on November 21, 2023, via Orlando International Airport with a B-2 tourist visa. Upon the expiration of that permit in May 2024, he did not regularize his immigration status.
The arrest took place on Monday, May 26, 2026, when ICE agents apprehended her while she was working as an assistant at a plastic surgery clinic in Miami — a profession related to her training as a plastic surgeon in Cuba.
The ICE portal registered her at the Broward Transition Center in Pompano Beach, Florida.
In May, attorney Avelino González revealed details of the case on the program "Encuentro Virtual" from Telemundo 51. He described Alina's detention conditions under ICE custody as "inhumane."
"They are sleeping on the floor, they are given the same soup for lunch and dinner, and they are not being given medications." González also warned that authorities might be pressuring Alina to accept voluntary self-deportation.
The father: one of the most influential military figures of the Cuban regime
The case takes on a particular political dimension due to the profile of his father. Ulises Rosales del Toro, born on March 8, 1942, was Chief of the General Staff of the Revolutionary Armed Forces from 1981 to 1997, Minister of Sugar, Minister of Agriculture, Vice President of the Council of Ministers, and a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba until 2011. He holds the title of Hero of the Republic of Cuba.
While the general accumulated positions at the top of the regime, his family enjoyed a life of privileges inaccessible to the average Cuban, according to an investigation by Martí Noticias published in February 2026: frequent international travels, exclusive residences, and businesses reserved for the elite.
Another daughter of the general, Perla Rosa Rosales Aguirreurreta, took over the management of Habaguanex S.A. in 2017, the Cuban state tourism and heritage company.
The detention of Alina Rosales is part of a broader offensive by the Trump administration against relatives of high-ranking officials of the Cuban regime residing in the United States.
However, her case differs from that of Adys Lastres Morera —sister of the executive president of GAESA, the military-business conglomerate of the regime—, arrested in Miami at the end of May under a political order from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and later transferred to a processing center in Louisiana.
Unlike that case, the detention of Alina Rosales is due to a regular immigration issue: the expiration of her tourist visa without having regularized her status.
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