A year after voluntarily leaving the United States, Deivy Alemán Oropesa remains in Cuba while his three-year-old daughter prepares for a new open-heart surgery, and his family is requesting a humanitarian visa that would allow him to be present during the procedure.
According to information revealed in an interview with journalist Javier Díaz for Univision 23, the case took a positive step this week when the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) approved the expedited processing of Alemán's case, as confirmed by his wife, Yisel Miguel Sarduy, a U.S. citizen.
"I was calling USCIS today, and they told me that our expedited case has been approved," he stated. However, that progress does not equate to a return authorization or a specific return date: Alemán remains on the island, and the uncertainty continues.
The journalist Javier Díaz, who covered the case exclusively, warned that consulted immigration experts agree that Alemán could eventually return to the United States, but that "the exact date remains uncertain."
What the family is asking for now is specific and limited: "All we ask is that someone help us, even if it's just with a humanitarian visa for two or three months, so he can be here during that process and then, if he has to return to Cuba, he will," Yisel stated.
The migratory odyssey
The story of this family became public in August 2025, when it was revealed that Alemán—who resided in Orlando, had no criminal record, and was under immigration supervision—was facing an ICE order requiring him to leave the country.
The family submitted medical reports and letters from specialists to try to halt the deportation on humanitarian grounds, but the decision remained unchanged.
On September 14, 2025, Alemán chose to self-deport before being detained, separating from his wife and Keira, who was born without a tricuspid valve, a complex congenital heart defect that has already required two open-heart surgeries at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital.
Now, at three years old, the girl needs a third intervention. "She’ll be coming soon; the girl's surgery is approaching. It’s a very difficult process that has me worried because we’ve already been through this," said Alemán from Cuba.
His wife is the one bearing the weight of the situation in Orlando. Without her husband's income, Yisel has reinvented herself by creating content on social media to cover basic expenses and has received support from the Cuban community in exile.
"I have received a lot of support from the Cuban community. It's incredible the support I have gotten from people who don't know me, who have never seen me," she expressed.
In October 2025, Keira traveled to Cuba to reunite with her father thanks to the efforts of a travel agency, a decision that sparked criticism on social media.
Yisel responded firmly: "I understand them. If I were in a different situation, I wouldn't travel to Cuba with a child either. But the only person who can understand why I make these decisions is a parent who has spent two months hospitalized with my daughter."
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