A Cuban woman living in Phoenix, Arizona, who arrived in the United States in 2023 by sea with her husband and daughter, shared on TikTok how she earned her permanent residency in an immigration court on July 27, 2026, in a process that lasted over two years and nearly ended in deportation.
The woman, identified on the platform as @unacubanaenphoenix, explained that since their arrival in the country, all three family members received the I-220A form, a supervision release order from ICE that does not equate to formal parole and does not automatically activate the Cuban Adjustment Act.
Her first hearing was in 2024, which she attended without legal representation. She then hired a lawyer who, months later, abandoned the case due to personal issues, leaving her without legal support as the final court date approached. Throughout that time, she had never applied for residency through Cuban adjustment. "My lawyer was one of those who said that it wasn't necessary, that I couldn't apply because I had an open court case," she explained in the video.
In March 2026, with the final hearing scheduled for July, she began searching for representation again. She consulted several lawyers, most of whom told her that her case had no resolution. "He was the only one who gave me different options to defend my case; other lawyers I spoke to told me: there's no solution, if you don't win the asylum, you're overwhelmed," she said about the lawyer Leandro Ferrer, whom she eventually hired.
Together, they applied for residency with the Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) under the Cuban Adjustment Act. Weeks before the hearing, the prosecution sent a letter requesting the asylum be terminated, asking the judge to close the case and deport her to Ecuador. The lawyer responded immediately, asking the judge to wait to hear her in the final court hearing. "My judge responded in less than seventy-two hours and positively in my favor," the Cuban woman recounted.
On Sunday, July 27, during the hearing before the Court of Merits, the judge approved his residency through Cuban adjustment. The prosecutor present did not oppose any of the determinations. The asylum case was closed in court, and the family is now waiting for the physical residency card.
The case takes place in a context of immense legal uncertainty for Cubans with I-220A in the United States. Residency approvals for Cubans dropped by 99.8% between February 2025 and January 2026, according to a report published in April. The outcomes vary drastically depending on the judge and the jurisdiction: in February 2026, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals overturned previous rulings by the Board of Immigration Appeals and returned cases of Cubans with I-220A for new review, without declaring automatic eligibility.
The procedural pressure has also increased: in July, immigration courts began to advance hearing dates for Cubans with I-220A. On the same day this Cuban celebrated her victory, another compatriot with the same form received a deportation order after appearing in court.
In response to those who doubted her account in the comments, the Cuban woman was straightforward: "There are incredulous people who have left some rather nasty comments telling me it can't be true, that they don't grant residency in court." Her case demonstrates that it is indeed possible, although each victory remains the exception in a legal landscape that still provides no certainties for the approximately half a million Cubans with I-220A in the country.
Filed under: