A Cuban woman wearing an electronic ankle bracelet posted a video on TikTok on Wednesday where she recounts, visibly shaken, how her routine appointment with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cost her her work permit, passport, and job, all within a matter of minutes.
In the video posted on her account @yusmary538, the woman explains that her work authorization was canceled the exact moment she crossed the threshold of the office of the agent handling her case. "The permit I had to work until that moment when I stepped into the office of the woman who is assisting me expired," she recounts through sobs.
But the cancellation of the permit was not the only issue. The agents also withheld her passport without providing any further justification. "When I arrived, she said to me: no, we have to keep your passport. Why? Because that's what the ICE officer decides until you complete your process," the woman recounts, describing the response she received.
What affected her the most, according to her own account, was the complete lack of explanations from the official who assisted her. "As a human being, the least one deserves is that if there’s going to be a change or something is going to happen, at least they should tell you: look, your permit expired because of this," she noted.
Upon leaving the office, the Cuban described a state of extreme disorientation. "I left the office and... I almost got hit by a car, to be honest," she said. She added, "I don't even know what to think or what to do anymore. I know all of this has an end and it won't bring me down, but the helplessness is overwhelming, the injustice is so great, and the way you can't defend yourself is just unbearable."
The immediate outcome was the loss of his job. "For now, I’ve already lost my job, I don't know, I don’t know how far we’re going to go," he concluded.
The video, tagged with #grilleteelectronico, confirms that the woman is under electronic supervision by ICE, placing her among the thousands of Cubans with form I-220A who entered the United States between 2021 and 2024. This document does not grant legal immigration status or a work permit, although it allows for temporary residency while the case is resolved.
Her experience is not an isolated case. A Cuban woman arrested in Phoenix after leaving her job spent a month in detention and was released with an electronic ankle monitor, despite having a valid work permit. In January of this year, ICE questioned the citizenship of a Cuban woman and kept her in detention for 25 days before also releasing her with an ankle monitor. And in May, Cristian Michel García Gil was released after five months in detention through a habeas corpus petition.
Immigration lawyers warn that voluntarily handing over a passport to ICE could harm immigrants in their legal process, as the document may be used against them during immigration proceedings.
It is estimated that around 400,000 Cubans in the United States are in a state of immigration limbo, many of them with form I-220A, exposed to these types of consequences every time they attend a supervision appointment with ICE.
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