A federal court in Florida issued an order on Wednesday requiring the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to review whether the detention of Carlos Alberto Sáez González, a Cuban national denied entry to his own country by authorities in Havana, is justified on public safety grounds.
The ruling, signed by Judge Sheri Polster Chappell of the Middle District of Florida, does not revoke the current deportation order.
The case began last April when Sáez González attempted to return voluntarily to Cuba through self-deportation after having lived in the United States since June 16, 1988. Cuban authorities prevented him from entering the Havana airport without providing any explanation, according to the court document.
Back in U.S. territory, ICE revoked the supervision order he had been under for over a decade and detained him. Days later, the agency notified him of its intention to deport him to Mexico; he expressed willingness to cooperate, but the expulsion was never carried out.
Judge Chappell ruled that there is not a significant probability that Sáez González could be deported in the reasonably foreseeable future, applying the precedent set by the Supreme Court in Zadvydas v. Davis (2001), which prohibits indefinite immigration detention when removal is not feasible.
The court noted that the detainee met the initial burden of proof by demonstrating that Cuba rejected him and that ICE made no real attempt to transfer him to Mexico despite his cooperation. "The burden falls on the government, yet it makes no attempt at rebuttal," the ruling states.
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However, the judge did not order his release.
The Supreme Court also recognizes that the protection of the community may justify the detention of particularly dangerous individuals, with appropriate procedural safeguards. Since the Cuban has a criminal record —the document does not specify the offense— the judge granted ICE 30 days to assess whether he poses a significant enough risk to justify keeping him in custody.
After that review, the government will have seven days to submit a supplementary response to the court, and Sáez González will be able to reply in an additional three days.
The resolution also requires the government to certify within three days that it has notified the order, as ICE recently transferred him to another detention center and does not forward legal mail to detainees after transfers. The habeas corpus petition remains pending a definitive resolution.
On the same Wednesday, Judge Chappell issued a similarly far-reaching ruling for another Cuban, identified as Josué Álvarez, whose deportation is also deemed unlikely in the short term, with the same 30-day deadline for ICE to review whether his criminal history justifies detention.
Both cases remain open.
The case of Sáez González falls within a broader trend of legal disputes in 2026 regarding the prolonged detention of Cubans when neither Cuba accepts their repatriation nor attempts to expel them to third countries are successful.
In October, a judge in Nevada ordered the release of another Cuban detained by ICE because the government did not demonstrate that his deportation could be executed. In September, a Cuban regained his freedom in Texas after eight months in ICE custody through a habeas corpus, although the deportation order was still in effect.
The Cuban regime has accepted deportation flights in 2026 —including individuals with convictions for serious crimes—, but continues to deny individual cases without explanation, leaving people like Sáez González trapped between Havana's refusal and U.S. immigration custody, with no clear way out in sight.
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