U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced on Tuesday the arrest of Elias Cardoza-Torres, a 58-year-old Cuban citizen who had been living for over 26 years with a final deportation order while accruing new convictions for drug, weapon, and theft-related offenses.
According to the agency's statement, Cardoza-Torres was handed over to ICE on June 11 by the Miami-Dade County Sheriff's Office, after being released from local custody. Since then, he has been detained awaiting his deportation.
According to ICE, the Cuban's criminal record spans nearly three decades and includes convictions for heroin trafficking, possession of cocaine on two occasions, burglary, vehicle theft, drug possession, and a serious offense related to firearms, along with an arrest for assault.
His first conviction occurred in November 1991, when he received two days in jail for possession of cocaine.
He was later sentenced to 22 months in prison for burglary in 1997 and, in 1999, to five years in prison for selling heroin.
In the following years, he was again convicted for vehicle theft, drug possession, a new sentence for cocaine possession, and a felony related to firearms, with incidents recorded between 2011 and 2018.
ICE highlighted that most of those crimes were committed after an immigration judge ordered their deportation on April 12, 2000.
According to the agency, Cardoza-Torres entered the United States in 1989 with a temporary residency permit but never regularized his immigration status, despite being able to apply for permanent residency under the Cuban Adjustment Act after living in the country for a year and a day.
The interim director of ICE, David J. Venturella, stated that the detainee "completely ignored" both immigration and criminal laws.
"Cardoza-Torres was never a legal permanent resident of the United States, and an immigration judge ordered his deportation more than 26 years ago. We are talking about a person who completely disregarded our immigration laws and our criminal laws," he stated.
The official also thanked the cooperation of the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office.
"Fortunately, the Miami-Dade County Sheriff's Office turned him over to ICE custody, where he will remain pending his deportation," he added.
The arrest takes place in a context of increased cooperation between local authorities and the federal government regarding immigration matters.
Florida is the only state where all 67 county sheriffs have active agreements with ICE under the 287(g) program, initiated by Governor Ron DeSantis. In June of this year, Miami-Dade formalized its participation in this program, which allows for the identification and transfer of undocumented immigrants from county jails to federal custody.
According to figures from the Department of Homeland Security, more than 42,000 Cuban citizens currently have final deportation orders pending execution in the United States.
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