A Mexican man who had been living in the United States for 18 years and was about to marry an American citizen lost his wedding—and jeopardized his future in the country—after being arrested by the police upon leaving a supermarket with some beers in a bag. The case was recounted by immigration lawyer Willy Allen III during a live interview with Tania Costa on the weekly program they both host every Friday on CiberCuba.
According to Allen III, the man had entered the country legally but did not have valid immigration status. The couple had planned their wedding for three weeks from now, with the aim of starting the family petition and seeking forgiveness for the irregular entry.
Upon exiting the supermarket, the police stopped him, claiming that he was a person publicly intoxicated, solely based on the fact that he was carrying beers in the bag.
"They stopped him outside the market and said, 'You are a publicly intoxicated person, clearly, because you have a beer in your hand.' And they arrested him. Without conducting a test, without doing anything, they arrested him," Allen III recounted.
The seemingly minor arrest had devastating consequences. Just 21 days before the wedding, the man was taken into custody and his immigration regularization process was left in limbo.
"We are experiencing very difficult moments with these tensions. And there is nothing that can be done, I mean, because he was getting married in 21 days and came out of a supermarket with beers," lamented the lawyer.
Allen explained that the girlfriend will have an appointment with a lawyer from his office to explore possible solutions, but in the worst-case scenario, the couple would have to process everything from abroad.
"You will have to go to Mexico, you will have to get married in Mexico and go through the process from there," he said.
The lawyer described the arrest as a racist pretext and warned that similar situations could affect any immigrant without status. "Those kinds of things can happen to anyone. It’s a racist pretext. Of course, we must be cautious and try to make as few mistakes as possible," he noted.
This context is exacerbated by the tightening of immigration policy under the Trump administration. According to data cited by Allen, father of Allen III, in May 2026, 74.2% of those detained by ICE as of January 25, 2026, had no criminal record, confirming that the profile of detainees is no longer exclusively that of immigrants with a criminal history.
At this moment, Willy Allen Sr. has warned that no one is completely safe from an ICE detention, even those without any criminal records. He has also emphasized that lies or mistakes in immigration processes can definitively ruin a case that otherwise could have a resolution.
"One must be cautious," concluded Allen III, summarizing in four words the central warning for any immigrant hoping to regularize their status in the United States.
Filed under: