The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Jean Marcell Pérez García this Friday, a Cuban national with over two decades of residence in the United States and a final order of deportation, as announced by the ICE ERO Miami office through its official account.
Authorities described Pérez García as an illegal foreigner with a criminal record that includes drug trafficking, cocaine sale, fraud, resisting arrest, and theft. He remains in ICE custody awaiting deportation, despite having been previously arrested and released by court order.
The case has a judicial history that complicates its immigration situation. In June of this year, attorney John E. Steele, from the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, granted a petition for habeas corpus in favor of Pérez García and ordered his release within 24 hours, determining that his detention had exceeded the six-month threshold with no real prospect of deportation.
The court noted that ICE failed to demonstrate that Cuba or any other country would accept Pérez García, nor that there were confirmed travel documents to carry out the removal.
Following that judicial release, ICE proceeded with a new arrest, which is the one reported this Friday. The Cuban, who is said to have arrived in the United States in 2003, has thus spent more than two decades in the country accumulating convictions for drug offenses and insurance fraud.
According to the official statement, Pérez García remains detained in what is popularly known as Alligator Alcatraz, the name used to identify the temporary detention center in Florida's Everglades, operated in collaboration between the state and federal authorities.
Governor Ron DeSantis announced the permanent closure of that facility in June 2026, although Perez Garcia's own court file mentions the "Warden of Florida Soft Side South" as a defendant, indicating that he was incarcerated there during the period when the center operated.
The case illustrates a recurring pattern in ICE's immigration policy towards Cubans: the difficulty of executing deportations to the island, which often refuses to accept its nationals, leads to prolonged detentions that the courts have declared unconstitutional in several instances.
Several Cubans with decades of residency in the United States and old deportation orders were arrested and then released by the courts in 2026, only to be re-arrested shortly after by ICE.
Other similar cases have been reported in recent months. A Cuban has been detained by ICE for over a year after Cuba refused to accept him, while another was arrested 16 years after a court order in Miami.
The report from the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security, published in September 2026, documented inhumane conditions at Alligator Alcatraz: 79 detainees were confined in metal cages of approximately 18 square feet, in addition to overcrowding, contaminated water, insect-infested showers, and inadequate medical care.
For now, Pérez García remains in federal custody while ICE seeks to finalize his deportation to Cuba, a process that the case's background suggests may encounter new legal and diplomatic challenges.
El arresto de cubanos con órdenes de deportación es parte de una tendencia creciente en EE.UU. Sigue todos los detalles y novedades en nuestra sección de
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