Dairon Fuentes Rodríguez was arrested in Texas on December 4 during a routine appointment with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), and after seven months in detention, he requested voluntary departure from the United States to avoid accumulating a deportation record and to be able to reunite with his family in the future, as his wife filed an I-130 for him over two years ago.
But upon landing in Cuba aboard a commercial flight, the regime's immigration authorities refused to accept him and sent him back on the same flight, despite the fact that he has no criminal record or history in the United States. Upon his return to the United States, he was sent to a detention center in Texas, now in a legal limbo with no apparent way out.
His wife, Aylín Hernández, a Cuban resident in Houston, with 36 weeks of pregnancy, shared the case in a live interview with journalist Tania Costa. "Yes, I have to say it because I have no other choice. I don't have family here; I'm alone with my 11-year-old son, who is also being greatly affected by this situation," she said at the beginning of the conversation.
Dairon Fuentes, holder of an I-220A form and with no criminal record, was detained on December 4, 2025 when he went to a routine reporting appointment with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Houston. The immigration judge had closed her court pending the approval of a family petition I-130 that Aylín Hernández filed more than two years ago, so the family did not anticipate any issues.
"My husband has attended all his appointments, and on December 4th, he went to his last one, where he was taken into custody without any explanation," Aylín Hernández recounted.
After being processed in Montgomery County for approximately two months, Dairon Fuentes was transferred to Livingston, Texas. There, his attorney requested bail on two occasions—both denied without a hearing—filed a habeas corpus that the judge also rejected, and applied for a status adjustment in court with no positive outcome.
Aylín Hernández also reported on the conditions inside the center: "They treat the detainees very poorly there. They even force them to sign. They take their fingerprint. Since they can't sign, they pressure them and take their fingerprint."
Faced with the imminent final hearing and the exhaustion of all legal avenues, Aylín Hernández made the difficult decision to advise her husband to request voluntary departure. "No, it’s going to be painful, but ask for voluntary departure. If the judge grants it, it will be a good option because you won’t accumulate 10 years of punishment, and who knows, maybe in a year or two, the request will be approved, and you can return, and we can reunite as a family," she told him. He agreed: "I was willing to stay until the end, but I asked him for this favor; it's already too much suffering."
Dairon Fuentes was granted voluntary departure, and days later, ICE took him, in the early morning, to the airport. "At three in the morning, they transferred him to the airport and put him on a commercial flight to Cuba, with a layover in Miami, alongside regular passengers and everything," described his wife, who continues to work at 36 weeks pregnant because she is the sole breadwinner for the family.
Upon landing in Cuba, the outcome was one that nobody expected. "They treated him extremely poorly. They told him that the way ICE processed him, they would not admit him into the country and that they were going to send him back on the same flight," Aylín Hernández recounted about the reception her husband received from the regime's immigration authorities.
Dairon returned to the United States and was re-admitted to the detention center in Texas, where he has been detained for seven months without any response from authorities regarding another possible resolution to his case. The family reached out twice to their district congressman, Dan Crenshaw, but received no reply.
The paradox is that Dairon Fuentes arrived in the United States before his wife and entered with an I-220A. She entered later through the border, along with their son, who is now 11 years old, but they were granted parole, and they were able to benefit from the Cuban Adjustment Act. Thanks to that benefit, she has been able to file an I-130 for her husband.
The case fits into a broader pattern: Cuba has historically rejected the admission of deportees sent by ICE, with more than 42,000 Cubans under a final deportation order that the regime refuses to accept. Detentions of Cubans during the Trump administration skyrocketed by 463%, while approvals for permanent residency plummeted by 99.8%.
During the live broadcast, Dairon Fuentes was able to briefly connect via phone from the detention center. "Thank you very much for helping us and for making all of this possible. There are many people like me going through this situation," he said before the call was disconnected.
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