A federal judge in Nevada ordered the release of Cuban Roberto Miranda Moya, who was detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), ruling that the government had not demonstrated that his deportation to Cuba could be carried out in the reasonably foreseeable future.
The ruling, issued on October 8, 2026 by Judge Jennifer A. Dorsey of the Federal District Court of Nevada, establishes that keeping the migrant in custody without real prospects of deportation exceeds the legal authority of immigration authorities.
Miranda Moya arrived in the United States in 2016, when he applied for political asylum. On October 20, 2025, he was arrested by local authorities on charges of domestic violence and that same day he was taken into custody by ICE.
Subsequently, on March 3, 2026, he received a deportation order to Cuba. His appeal was denied for being submitted late, which rendered the order final on May 18.
Since then, he had been held at the Southern Nevada Detention Center, located in Pahrump, while awaiting an deportation that, as the court concluded, had no concrete possibility of being carried out.
The government did not demonstrate that it could deport him
One of the decisive factors in the ruling was that U.S. authorities did not prove they were taking steps to deport the Cuban national.
The judge noted that the likelihood of the United States successfully expelling Miranda Moya, as well as other Cuban citizens in similar circumstances, was extremely low.
Furthermore, the Government itself acknowledged that it was not attempting to transfer him to a third country, which undermined the justification for keeping him in detention while awaiting his deportation.
The magistrate based her decision on the precedent Zadvydas v. Davis, established by the Supreme Court in 2001, which limits the government's power to indefinitely detain immigrants with deportation orders.
Although that precedent presumably considers a six-month detention period following a final deportation order to be reasonable, Dorsey explained that it is not mandatory to wait for that time to pass when it becomes evident that the expulsion cannot take place.
In the case of Miranda Moya, approximately four months and 19 days had passed since her deportation order became final.
Release under supervision and protection against new detention
The ruling states that the Cuban should be released under reasonable conditions of supervision, provided that these do not delay his departure from the detention center.
It also prohibits federal authorities from arresting him again for immigration reasons, unless they present evidence that his deportation to a specific country can occur within a reasonably foreseeable future.
The court required the Government to inform about the date and conditions of his release, as well as to subsequently confirm compliance with the order.
The resolution does not eliminate the deportation order against Miranda Moya, but it prevents him from remaining detained indefinitely while the authorities lack a realistic means to deport him from the country.
The case of Miranda Moya adds to other judicial decisions that have questioned the prolonged detention of Cuban citizens when U.S. authorities are unable to carry out their deportations.
In May, a federal judge in Florida ordered the release of Cuban Mauricio Castellanos-Gorra, who had been detained by ICE for nearly seven months, after the government failed to present evidence justifying his continued custody. The decision was also based on the precedent Zadvydas v. Davis.
In contrast, other Cubans remain trapped in migration processes without a clear outcome. This is the case of Antonio Frómeta Ascón, 63 years old, who had been detained in Texas for over a year after Cuban authorities refused to accept him for deportation.
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