The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested a Cuban citizen over the weekend who, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), had been convicted of second-degree murder in Florida, reported the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Monday.
The Cuban is mentioned among 15 immigrants with notable criminal records highlighted by the DHS in a statement released on September 28, in which the agency described the detainees as part of "the worst of the worst" and listed convictions for crimes such as murder, homicide, sexual assaults against minors, child abuse, and drug trafficking.
The federal agency identified the Cuban as Rubén Ayala-Laies and stated that he was convicted of second-degree murder in Union County, Florida.
The DHS did not specify in its statement when the conviction for murder occurred, the circumstances of the crime, or when the Cuban regained his freedom before coming under immigration custody.
However, a court ruling from 2009 shows that Rubén Ayala-Laies was sentenced on July 29, 1983 to 65 years in prison in Florida.
The ruling was the subject of litigation again decades later before the Fourth District Court of Appeal in Florida, which reviewed a petition filed by Ayala-Laies in 2009 to correct aspects of that ruling.
The appeals court partially upheld and partially reversed the decision that had denied Ayala-Laies' petition, and remanded the case to the lower court for further proceedings. The controversy centered, among other issues, on the period during which the sentencing court had retained jurisdiction over its conviction, a question that could affect the timing of when access to parole would be granted. The court upheld the rejection of two of his arguments and overturned the decision regarding the third.
A discrepancy in the records
There is, however, a difference between the information disseminated this Monday by the DHS and the located court file.
The DHS notes that Ayala-Laies was convicted of second-degree murder in Union County. The process related to the 65-year sentence reviewed in 2009, on the other hand, originates from the 17th Judicial Circuit of Broward County and is identified as case 83-1435 CF10A.
The consulted judicial documentation confirms the 65-year sentence, but the 2009 appeal ruling does not specify the crime that led to that penalty. Therefore, it is not possible to determine from the available documents whether it pertains to the same murder conviction now mentioned by the DHS, another criminal case against Ayala-Laies, or a discrepancy in the information released by the federal agency.
DHS highlights arrests of immigrants with serious criminal records
The Cuban was included by the DHS in a list of foreigners arrested by ICE over the weekend who had previously been convicted of felonies in the United States.
Among the cases that have been disclosed are citizens from Laos, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Micronesia, and Nigeria, who have been convicted of murder, homicide, sexual offenses against minors, child abuse, drug possession and distribution, and other crimes.
The DHS presented the arrests as part of the immigration operations of the Donald Trump administration and stated that ICE continues to identify and detain undocumented immigrants with criminal records.
In the case of the Cuban citizen, the statement did not specify where he was arrested this weekend, how long he had been free, when he became subject to an immigration process, or whether there is currently a final deportation order to Cuba.
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