The mother and grandmother of Christian Omar González, a 27-year-old Cuban resident of Hialeah, have been pleading for nearly two months for his release after the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested him on August 5 while he was traveling to work in South Florida, according to a report by Univision.
Christian, who has no criminal record, remains detained at an ICE center in Miramar and faces a possible deportation order if his asylum case does not succeed.
"My child is not a delinquent."
The family's pain is summed up in the words of their mother, who has not stopped asking for help since the day of the arrest.
“Help me get my child out of there, because I can’t take it anymore. My child is not a criminal, my child is not a delinquent boy,” the woman declared to the media.
Her grandmother joins the outcry with the same anguish: «May my grandson be safe. All I want is for him to be here with us. He is not a criminal. Why?»
Both women wait every day for Christian's phone call, their only contact with him.
Arrested as a co-pilot, without a traffic ticket
The arrest occurred while the young man was traveling from Hialeah to West Palm Beach for work.
“I wasn’t driving; I was the passenger. They left me in a van next to 836, to wait for more people to be stopped, because the van was still empty,” the young man himself explained in statements to the mentioned media.
ICE confirmed that Christian is in an irregular immigration status and was arrested during a joint operation with the Florida Highway Patrol, following alleged traffic violations: speeding, running a red light, and unsafe lane changes.
Luis Villalba, the driver of the vehicle and U.S. citizen, denies that version.
“If we had taken a light and had been speeding, I would have to have a ticket for that. When did they give me a ticket? I have no ticket. I was the one driving,” asserted Villalba.
He fled from forced conscription after July 11th
Christian's story is marked by his departure from Cuba in June 2022, when he escaped the regime's mandatory military recruitment. It was his grandmother who starkly recounted why the family decided to hide him.
"When the events of July 11 happened, they came looking for my son and I said no, that he wasn't there, because I could see from my balcony all the young boys from the military reserve there, how they were being beaten, literally with sticks to make them hit. And I saw and felt gunshots, and I said: 'My son is not going'."
The family gathered money to finance his departure, and Christian set out on the route that hundreds of thousands of Cubans used in 2022: first to Nicaragua and then through Central America and Mexico.
The military service in Cuba is mandatory for men aged 17 to 28, does not recognize conscientious objection, and a recent investigation revealed that at least 89 young people died during active military service on the island in the last decade.
Bail denied and risk of deportation
The legal process for Christian in the U.S. has been a nightmare.
The first bail application was denied because the local judge lacked jurisdiction, a situation that affects Cubans classified as “arriving aliens”, a category that prevents the immigration judge from granting that benefit.
Villalba, who has also taken on part of the expenses, described the exhaustion they are experiencing.
"When my bail hearing came up, it was denied because the judge here does not have jurisdiction there. We filed for bail again. That's more money I owe. I can't take it anymore," he explained.
The ICE center in Miramar where Christian is being held has been flagged in 2026 for extreme overcrowding, with reports of up to 342 individuals detained despite an official capacity of 56.
A Cuban detained at that center reported inhumane treatment in recent weeks.
The lawyers in the case do not offer much hope: "Unfortunately, if you do not have solid asylum, you will receive a deportation order."
The case of Christian coincides with the moment when the Supreme Court of the United States will decide whether ICE can keep migrants in that category detained without the right to bail, a review that could directly impact dozens of Cubans in similar situations in Florida.
El caso de Christian Omar González refleja la situación que enfrentan miles de cubanos en Estados Unidos. Sigue toda la actualidad sobre detenciones, deportaciones y procesos migratorios en nuestra sección de
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