The Cuban Erlan Rafael Arias has been released after nearly a year in detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and he has also regained his permanent residency, which he had held for over ten years, reported journalist Javier Díaz on Facebook.
Arias was arrested in October 2025 upon arriving at Miami International Airport after a trip to Cuba to visit his sick grandmother. The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detained him during the immigration inspection and handed him over to ICE hours later.
The reason for the arrest dated back to events that occurred nearly a decade earlier: in 2015, Arias had been arrested in Hialeah for petty theft in a store, and in 2016 he faced a charge of conspiracy in mailbox theft, for which he completed over a year of probation.
El caso de Arias refleja la complejidad de los procesos migratorios que enfrentan miles de cubanos en EE.UU. Sigue de cerca estos y otros casos en nuestra sección de
In 2017, the charge of petty theft was dismissed and Arias was declared innocent, according to the lawyer who handled his case. However, those records remained active in the immigration databases, which was sufficient for the authorities to take him into custody upon re-entering the country.
His wife, Natalie Castañeda, stated at the time that Arias had traveled to Cuba on two previous occasions without any issues, and that no one warned them that a third trip could lead to consequences. "He has a document from when his case was dismissed stating that USCIS would not interfere. They never told him he couldn't travel," she asserted.
After his arrest, Arias was transferred to the detention center known as "Alligator Alcatraz," where he remained while his family processed a immigration pardon using form I-601.
Other Cuban migrants detained by ICE have been able to regain their freedom, although not all with the same outcome. Yaíma de las Mercedes Suárez, a mother of five, was detained for six months after being arrested upon her return from Cuba in February, and was released in August with a judge's pardon.
Marlon Cervelo Trujillo was released in September after eight months in custody by ICE, through a habeas corpus petition, although he has a pending deportation order.
These cases fall within a context of a broader tightening of immigration policy that triggered a 463 % increase in the detention of Cubans between October 2025 and April 2026.
Immigration attorney Wilfredo "Willy" Allen publicly warned about the risks of these trips: "Once you have committed a criminal offense in the United States, you are subject to deportation. If you leave the country, you are exposing yourself to detention."
His recommendation for any permanent resident with a history—even minor or dismissed offenses—is to wait until obtaining U.S. citizenship before traveling abroad.
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