Eduardo Ortiz, a 35-year-old Cuban who entered the United States through an appointment with CBP One and received a two-year parole, has been detained by ICE in Florida for 17 months, while his family awaits the outcome of an appeal and seeks to secure his release.
Ortiz remains confined at the Broward Transitional Center (BTC) in Pompano Beach. According to Univision 23, he was arrested while traveling to his construction job in the Florida Keys.
"I was going to work, I was in the truck with a friend of mine, he was driving and I was asleep next to him," he recounted during a video call from the center.
His partner claims that Ortiz respected the laws and had no criminal record before being detained, and that they are currently trying to reverse his situation through legal channels.
"We are currently in an appeals process. We are awaiting this process. We have a habeas corpus filed," he explained.
The immigration lawyer José Guerrero, who does not represent the Cuban but analyzed his case for Univision, explained that individuals who entered through CBP One can be considered "foreigners in the process of arrival," a classification that prevents them from requesting bail before an immigration judge.
"If they have not yet obtained their residency, which is a defined immigration status, they could be arrested, and unfortunately, they are considered what is called a foreigner arriving in the United States, and they are not granted bail," he pointed out.
Guerrero added that this situation also limits the options available before the immigration court. "When he is in a court process, the only thing he can defend is asylum, because the judge does not have jurisdiction over that residency application," he explained.
Ortiz has spent 35 years in the detention center and claims that the support among the migrants themselves has helped him cope with the months of confinement.
"The Cubans here support each other a lot, the Colombians, we help each other a lot, we give each other a lot of strength," he said.
During the interview, he also revealed that he has refused to sign a voluntary deportation to Africa or any other third country.
ICE has sent Cubans to third countries when their direct deportation to Cuba does not materialize. Among those destinations have been African nations such as South Sudan, Liberia, Equatorial Guinea, and the Central African Republic, where two Cuban citizens were deported in early September.
The administration of Donald Trump eliminated the CBP One appointment system on January 20, 2025. Subsequently, authorities began revoking temporary stay permits granted to individuals who had entered through various migration programs. In April 2026, Cubans who had entered with CBP One appointments received notifications of revocation of their paroles.
The case of Ortiz also occurs after, in August, a federal judge in Florida ordered the release of another Cuban detained by ICE who had entered through CBP One, concluding that his detention violated due process guarantees.
Ortiz, meanwhile, assures that he is not willing to accept a voluntary departure to a third country and that his family is the reason he continues to fight. "I love them, my mom and my sister, that is my reason for being," he expressed.
"We are fleeing from a dictatorship, from repression, from everything," affirmed the Cuban.
El caso de Eduardo Ortiz refleja la complejidad del sistema migratorio estadounidense. Sigue de cerca las últimas novedades sobre ICE, parole, CBP One y deportaciones en nuestra sección de
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