Carlos Hugo Betancur, a 52-year-old Colombian resident in South Florida, was arrested by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on July 7 while refueling at a Marathon station located on Northwest 58th Street in Doral, as he was heading to work, according to a report by Miami Herald.
Her daughter, María Alejandra Betancur, recounted that her father called her at the moment when the agents approached him and asked about his immigration status, but the communication was abruptly cut off when an officer snatched the phone away from him.
"I asked him: Why is my father being detained? He didn't answer. I asked him again and again, and he just said: He is here illegally. He has no documentation. I told him that he has an asylum application in process," the young woman told CBS News Miami.
The family claims that the arrest is unjustified: Betancur submitted a request for political asylum in January 2023, after arriving in the United States in February 2022.
In addition, he had a valid employment authorization card until 2030, a Florida driver's license, and an active social security number.
According to Noticias RCN, there are no criminal records either in Colombia or in the United States, and he had been working for an American company for two years.
ICE, however, rejected the family's arguments. "Carlos Hugo Betancur was arrested on July 7 for being illegally present in the United States. Betancur exceeded the timeframe authorized by his visa in violation of immigration law. He will remain in custody until his hearing before an immigration judge," said a spokesperson for the agency in statements to CBS News Miami.
From the ICE processing center in Miramar, where he is being detained, Betancur managed to communicate with his family to describe the internal conditions: "Yesterday, someone had a seizure and coughed up blood, he couldn't handle the heat. There are about 90 people in the room," he reported.
That same center has been the subject of multiple complaints in recent weeks.
Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz visited him on July 3 and described the conditions as "harsh and inhumane," after witnessing that more than 150 people were crammed into spaces designed for 56, with only one toilet per room and extreme temperatures.
Migrants reported detentions of up to 10 days in that location, despite ICE obtaining a waiver to hold individuals for a maximum of 72 hours.
Another Colombian detained in the same center, Alejandro Gómez, 26 years old, described a similar situation: "The place where we were locked up is meant for a maximum of about 10 people. There were 90 of us begging for them to give us oxygen." Gómez chose voluntary departure and returned to Medellín; his uncle Sebastián Martínez remains in custody.
The councilwoman of Doral and immigration attorney Maureen Porras expressed her concern about what she describes as an increase in the arrests of individuals with active immigration processes.
"It is very concerning that we have ICE in our community arresting hardworking and law-abiding citizens," he stated.
The Betancur family hired a lawyer to take on the case and is requesting financial assistance to cover the costs of legal representation and the bond.
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in May 2026 that migrants in ICE custody in Florida are entitled to a bond hearing, a precedent that could be significant for their situation.
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