Maikel Guerra Morales, the Cuban who spent 22 years in a federal prison in the United States for participating in the hijacking of a plane in Cuba in 2003, was released following a court order that required the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to release him within 24 hours, according to Telemundo 51.
Guerra was released last Thursday with an electronic ankle monitor and under immigration supervision, and was welcomed by his mother and older brother, whom he had not seen since his detention in December.
"If the judge doesn't crack down, ICE won't let me go," said journalist Alexis Boentes.
Federal judge John E. Steele, from the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, granted a habeas corpus petition filed by Guerra's attorneys and determined that the government could not hold him indefinitely if his deportation was not feasible within a reasonably foreseeable timeframe.
The case dates back to March 19, 2003, when Guerra and at least 11 other Cubans - led by his brother Alexis Norniella Morales - took control of a DC-3 aircraft belonging to the Cuban state company Aerotaxi shortly after taking off from Nueva Gerona, on the Isle of Youth, heading to Havana.
On board there were 37 people, including passengers, crew, and an escort.
The kidnappers used knives to demand that the aircraft be diverted to the United States. Florida Air National Guard fighter jets escorted the plane to the Key West airport, where it landed shortly after eight in the evening. No one was injured, and the men surrendered to authorities.
Guerra was sentenced to 264 months - 22 years - in federal prison for air piracy and interference with the crew of an aircraft, a sentence he served in full.
Regarding what he experienced over the years, he spoke candidly: "I don’t regret how I came here, because I came for freedom and that was my dream. But I regret that my youth was spent this way: over 20 years in prison. It’s something I won’t forget. There has been a lot of suffering, an experience that I carry inside me."
After being released from prison, he moved to Texas. At the end of 2025, he traveled to Sarasota to ring in the new year with his mother, but on December 30, ICE agents arrested him at the airport, claiming they would deport him to Mexico.
He remained for 33 days in the detention center known as "Alligator Alcatraz" and was then transferred to the Krome Processing Center in South Florida.
Judge Steele pointed out that the government had been over three years since the deportation order and more than six months since the detention without being able to present a concrete expulsion plan, and that it did not provide evidence that Mexico had agreed to accept him.
"The law is clear on this matter. The Government cannot confine individuals in a cell indefinitely as an alternative solution to a stalled deportation process," wrote the magistrate in his ruling.
Guerra is protected under the Convention Against Torture, granted in May 2022, which prevents his direct deportation to Cuba by recognizing that he could face inhumane treatment there.
"I should not be deported to a third country. I cannot go to Cuba, I cannot go to a country that has relations with Cuba," he stated.
Your case is not the only one. Adermis Wilson González, another participant in the same hijacking, was deported to Mexico in September 2025 after being arrested by ICE in Houston, because Cuba refused his repatriation.
Under the current Trump administration, the United States has deported at least 4,353 Cubans to Mexico between January 2025 and March 2026.
Guerra remains under ICE supervision and could be detained again if the government succeeds in proving that there is a destination willing to receive him.
For now, he is clear about his next step: "To fight. This is the land of opportunities, and yes, it is possible."
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