Immigration attorney Willy Allen III revealed on his weekly program with Tania Costa on CiberCuba that the formal title of the agreement between the United States and Ecuador could serve as the legal basis to invalidate deportation motions to that country in cases involving Cubans, as the document—according to his initial reading—limits its application to individuals coming from Central America.
The discovery emerged from a conversation with fellow attorney Jeffrey Shapiro, who had a hearing where a judge denied the government's motion to bypass a case based on the agreement with Ecuador. In that decision, the judge himself included a copy of the agreement along with its title, which —according to Allen— indicates that the mechanism only applies to individuals from Central America.
"Yesterday I was speaking with the lawyer, the great lawyer Jeffrey Shapiro. And he had a court where the judge denied the government’s motion to bypass it based on the agreement with Ecuador. In that decision, the same judge included a copy of the agreement, and the title of the agreement states that it applies to individuals from Central America," Allen explained.
Based on that reading, the lawyer outlined the central argument: "We are not solely Central Americans, which means I could save all Cubans with a motion to sue Ecuador."
In response to the question of whether that would completely invalidate the deportation motions to Ecuador for Cubans, Allen III replied, "I assume so. That's why I don't want to say anything about the details just yet, because we are going to study it thoroughly," he said.
The lawyer was emphatic that the theory is preliminary. “It’s very early,” he warned, and clarified that he had not yet read the full agreement: “I still haven’t had time to read everything. I saw the title and started to think. So let’s see what we can do with that information.”
Allen noted that he, Shapiro, and his girlfriend—who also works at Willy Allen's firm and studies at the Law School—will be responsible for thoroughly investigating the agreement. "We're thinking about everything: Jeffrey, my girlfriend, and I... So the three of us will take care of researching and seeing how we can use that information for our clients," he said. He expected to return to Miami the following Monday to delve deeper into the analysis.
The agreement between Washington and Quito was signed through the exchange of diplomatic notes in July 2025 and published in the Federal Register on November 17 of that year. The mechanism allows the United States to propose the transfer of nationals from third countries to Ecuador, although the Ecuadorian government accepts or rejects each case at its discretion. The actual transfers began in mid-January 2026, and according to records from monitoring organizations, by June of that year, approximately 121 people of various nationalities had been transferred, including Cubans.
This is not the first case involving Cubans and deportations to Ecuador. In January 2026, the case of a Cuban detained in New York with a deportation order to that country was reported despite having no ties to it, and in June, the United States deported former MININT official Rogelio Bolufé to Ecuador. The practice of deporting migrants to third countries with which they have no relationship has been criticized by human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch.
Allen closed his revelation cautiously: "I don't know what is going to happen. I can't guarantee anything. I believe it's something that can help us."
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