Malena Chacón Santos, a 24-year-old Cuban married to a U.S. Army veteran, has been detained by ICE in Texas for nearly 10 months after voluntarily attending a routine immigration supervision appointment in Dallas.
The young woman arrived that November morning in 2025 convinced that she would return home with her husband, who was waiting for her outside. However, she was detained and the next day transferred to the Bluebonnet Detention Center in Anson, more than 175 miles from her home, according to a report published this Tuesday by The Texas Tribune.
Chacón Santos was carrying documents that, as he explained to the media, proved that he had followed his immigration process correctly. He tried to show them to the agents, but he stated that they did not review them and told him to notify his family that he would not be returning home.
The Cuban woman immediately called her husband, Juan Carlos Álvarez, a U.S. citizen who served in the Army for two years.
"What is happening?" he asked her. Neither of them had an answer at that moment.
He arrived through CBP One and requested asylum
Chacón Santos had arrived in the United States in November 2024 after spending approximately six months in Mexico waiting for an appointment to apply for asylum through the CBP One app.
According to The Texas Tribune, he finally received the appointment, and U.S. authorities allowed him to enter under parole while his asylum application was pending.
"My life changed," the young woman recalled about her first months in the United States.
In February 2025, she married Álvarez and became the stepmother to his three children. The family attended boxing classes, sports events, and museums, while the couple dreamed of someday opening a real estate business or a gym.
Everything changed with his arrest.
Álvarez told the newspaper that his wife had been one of his main supports and accompanied him to his medical appointments related to health issues stemming from his military service.
The case reached federal courts. In May of this year, her attorney Claire McVey Carmona filed a writ of habeas corpus with the Northern District Court of Texas (case 1:26-cv-00226). On August 4, Judge James Wesley Hendrix denied it with prejudice, which prevents the same arguments from being presented again in that court.
Almost 10 months in detention
The Texas Tribune verified through immigration, state, and federal records that Chacón Santos has no criminal convictions.
Her story is part of a report on five immigrants from Cuba, Mexico, China, Iran, and Venezuela who were detained by ICE in Texas. None have criminal convictions, and some had entered legally or were in the process of finding ways to regularize their immigration status.
The federal data analyzed by the newspaper shows that, as of August 6, only 31% of the more than half a million people arrested by ICE across the United States had any criminal convictions. In Texas, where about a quarter of the arrests take place, two out of three detainees had no convictions.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) defended its policy and told the newspaper that the Trump administration would use "all legal options to carry out the largest deportation operation in history."
The agency also noted that ICE is taking action against individuals that the current administration classifies as undocumented immigrants, including some who had been authorized to enter during Joe Biden's administration.
"Being detained is a choice," the DHS stated while promoting voluntary departure from the country. "Otherwise, you will be arrested and deported with no opportunity to return."
ICE reached record numbers of arrests during the summer, amid intensified immigration operations.
Meanwhile, Chacón Santos remains in Bluebonnet worried about the possibility of being deported to Cuba. She says that she copes with the confinement by reading and exercising, and she holds on to the hope of returning to her family.
Her husband is also unwilling to accept it. "We've done everything right," Álvarez declared. "Something has to give."
El caso de Malena es uno de los muchos que reflejan la complejidad del sistema migratorio estadounidense. Sigue toda la actualidad sobre arrestos, detenciones y procesos migratorios en nuestra sección de
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