The immigration attorney Willy Allen III and his colleague Jeffrey Scott Shapiro achieved a significant legal victory this week before an immigration judge in Miami: they successfully argued that the deportation agreement with Ecuador signed between the United States and that country does not apply to Cuban citizens, resulting in the reopening of a Cuban client's asylum case.
According to Allen III, the client had a motion to Ecuador filed by the government, but the judge had pretermitted—that is, suspended—the asylum without issuing a formal deportation order. The legal team filed a motion to reconsider that pretermittance, and the judge granted it, reopening the asylum process.
"It worked. Before it explodes with all of that, it will be very, very specific, case by case, depending on the judge, because the judges obviously have to agree with it," Allen III warned while sharing the news with Tania Costa on CiberCuba.
The central argument is that the agreement between Washington and Quito, while it exists, does not include Cubans. "The deportation order was based on that agreement with Ecuador. It exists, but not for Cubans, only for Central Americans," the lawyer pointed out.
The precedent has a limited but specific scope: the argument works when there is not yet a formal deportation order. "It has worked when there is no deportation order," confirmed Allen III, who publicly announced on August 28 that he was exploring that legal avenue.
For the thousands of Cubans whose cases are already on appeal before the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), the situation is more complex. "We still don't know what we are going to do with the thousands of cases that are in appeal," the lawyer acknowledged. His team is considering two possible paths: filing a direct motion to the BIA or including the argument in the appeal brief when the second part of the process arrives.
Allen III clarified that having a deportation order doesn't close all doors. "For me, it doesn't matter if they have an order; the process is just a bit different when trying to change that decision and reopen the asylum."
Regarding Cubans who may have been deported to Ecuador under that agreement, Allen was cautious but did not rule out options. "To my knowledge, no one from Cuba has been deported to Ecuador," he stated. However, if such a case were to exist, his office could explore avenues such as a habeas corpus or a lawsuit against the government for illegal deportation. "We have seen some cases of people who have been illegally deported and have also been returned," he noted.
The agreement between the United States and Ecuador was signed through an exchange of diplomatic notes in July 2025 and published in the Federal Register in November of that year. Effective transfers began in mid-January 2026, and by last June, approximately 121 individuals of various nationalities had been transferred. Among the documented cases of Cubans with deportation orders to Ecuador is that of Alcibiades Lázaro Ramírez González and that of former MININT officer Rogelio Bolufé, who was deported in June 2026.
This legal advancement occurs alongside another significant judicial front for the Cuban migrant community: this Thursday, federal judge Jacqueline Becerra in Miami rejected the government's attempt to dismiss the lawsuit Bello-Rubio v. Noem, which groups 992 Cubans with form I-220A and seeks to have that document recognized as parole under the Cuban Adjustment Act.
"A very good piece of news for all Cubans regarding the Ecuador motion. This means there are grounds to stop it, at least when there is no deportation order. That is already approved; it's a fact, not an opinion. At least in front of a judge in Miami," concluded Allen III.
Este tipo de decisiones judiciales pueden marcar la diferencia para muchos cubanos en proceso de asilo. Sigue de cerca los últimos desarrollos en para estar al tanto de casos, leyes y recursos que podrían afectarte.
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