The son of a spectator identified as Nancy attempted to exit the U.S. immigration system, but neither Cuba nor Panamá accepted him, and he ended up returning to the United States with an electronic ankle monitor instead of going back to prison.
The case arose during a live broadcast of immigration lawyer Willy Allen alongside CiberCuba journalist Tania Costa, when Nancy recounted in the chat what had happened with her son. Upon hearing the account, Allen was straightforward: "Cuba didn’t accept him, Panama didn’t accept him, and he is here again, but at least with an ankle bracelet is better than being in prison."
It's not an exceptional situation. "His case is not an isolated one," he warned, and asked Nancy to send him more details so he could guide her, particularly if her son has a deportation order or if he is still waiting for his process to be resolved.
According to his mother, her son arrived in the United States in 2001 and has a record for illegal departure in 2013; he was deported for a human trafficking offense. Since then, he has had to check in annually with ICE in Orlando. This year, they placed him under electronic monitoring, and on July 2, he was given the option to buy a ticket to Cuba through a third country, namely Panama. Upon arriving in Panama, Cuba rejected his entry, and Panamanian immigration returned him to Orlando. As of now (Monday, July 13, around 11:00 AM Miami time), he is flying back. His family wants to know what options he has and what will happen to him.
What makes the case particularly striking is the double negative: first Cuba rejected the young man, and then Panama did the same, leaving him without any possible destination and forcing him to return to U.S. territory. Allen acknowledged that the situation is "a bit strange" and that he needs more information to understand the reasoning behind both rejections.
The electronic ankle monitor —a tracking device that ICE uses as an alternative to physical detention— is the reason Allen believes that the outcome, although far from ideal, represents a relatively better option than incarceration. The young man can move with greater freedom while his case remains pending.
This case falls within the broader pattern of Cubans with I-220A caught in a migration limbo, a situation that emerged massively following the arrival of Cuban migrants at the southern border starting in 2022. The I-220A form is a release order under supervision that does not guarantee permanent legal status or protection against deportation.
The underlying problem is that when a migrant requests voluntary departure—a provision that allows them to leave on their own and avoid the 10-year penalty associated with a formal deportation—and the destination country rejects them, they find themselves in a dead end: they cannot remain legally in the United States under the agreed terms, nor can they be admitted to any other country.
Cuba has systematically violated the migration agreement signed in January 2017 with the Obama administration, which required it to accept all Cuban citizens who entered the United States after March of that year. According to data from the dossier, more than 42,000 Cubans with final deportation orders have been rejected by Havana. In May 2026, the regime further strengthened its new Migration Law, which allows the denial of entry even to Cuban citizens for political or criminal reasons.
The case of Nancy's son is not the only one that illustrates this limbo. The program by Allen and Costa focused on the case of Dairon Fuentes, a Cuban with an I-220A who was also denied by Cuba after requesting voluntary departure and has been detained in Texas for seven months while his wife, who is 36 weeks pregnant, is already a resident.
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