Leidys Barrabi, a 25-year-old Cuban entrepreneur residing in Miami, publicly revealed that she received a deportation order after spending four years building her life in the United States, where she established a beauty salon from scratch and raised her daughter.
In an emotional video posted on June 27 on TikTok, Barrabi described the impact of the news in his own words: "In the midst of building a successful salon in Miami, creating a stable life for my daughter and my family, I received this news. Now I don't know what will happen tomorrow, I don't know what the next chapter of my story will be."
Despite the setback, the young mother refused to give up and sent a message of determination: "Even though I don’t have all the answers today, I still believe that God is in control of my life, and I will continue to fight harder than ever, because there is something greater than my fears: the desire to move forward and build the best future for my daughter and my family."
Barrabi also acknowledged the emotional weight of living under such a threat: "Only immigrants who have experienced something similar know how difficult it is to live with this uncertainty."
The entrepreneur's post on Instagram garnered over 757,000 views, 49,000 likes, and 3,200 comments in less than 24 hours, with a wave of messages of support and solidarity from the Cuban and Latin community.
From a legal standpoint, the order that Barrabi received is not necessarily final. He has the right to appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals within 30 days, although the Department of Justice proposed in February 2026 to shorten that period to 10 days.
It is essential that, in addition to appealing, you request a motion to suspend deportation, as the appeal alone does not automatically halt the process.
The case of Barrabi is situated within a sustained hardening of immigration policies under the Trump administration: Miami recorded 12,599 immigrant arrests between March 2025 and April 2026, accounting for 10% of the national total, and arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of Cubans increased by 463% during that period.
More than 42,000 Cubans have active deportation orders in the United States, and in the first five months of 2026, 612 Cubans were deported in 18 operations from the country.
Similar cases have proliferated in recent months. The Cuban mother Heydi Sánchez Tejeda was deported from Tampa in April 2025 during a routine appointment with ICE; Diana Fonseca chose voluntary departure in May 2026 before her immigration hearing; and another Cuban mother returned voluntarily to Cuba after four years in the country out of fear of an ICE summons.
Barrabi asked her followers to join her in prayer for herself and for all emigrants in similar situations, and expressed her desire to turn her content into a new way to support her family: "I would like to reach a thousand followers and turn this content into another means to support my family."
Filed under: