The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) located Nelson José Martínez Ramírez, an undocumented young Cuban with a criminal record, in the Federal Correctional Institution in Miami, according to an announcement made this Saturday by the ERO Miami office via their official account on X.
Martínez Ramírez was sentenced for conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine, a serious federal offense under U.S. law. At the time of the announcement, he remains in ICE custody while deportation proceedings are underway.
The case adds to a series of similar arrests made by ERO Miami in recent weeks. In early October, the agency arrested Reynaldo Chamizo-Zayas, a Cuban with convictions for methamphetamine trafficking and assault, and re-arrested Jean Marcell Pérez García, who, despite having been released by court order, had a record for cocaine sales and fraud. The Department of Homeland Security also included Ángel Ramírez-Castillo, convicted of attempted murder, on a list of individuals categorized as "the worst of the worst."
Este caso forma parte de un patrón más amplio de operaciones migratorias en curso. Sigue todos los detalles sobre arrestos, deportaciones y políticas migratorias en nuestra sección de
The final destination of Martínez Ramírez is the central mystery of the case. Although the Cuban regime accepted in February 2026, for the first time in its history, deportation flights that included individuals convicted of serious crimes —including drug traffickers, murderers, and kidnappers—, Havana reviews each case through the MININT and does not automatically readmit all deportees with criminal records.
Given the seriousness of the federal drug trafficking conviction, there is a real possibility that the Cuban regime will reject his repatriation. In that scenario, the United States would turn to third countries. Mexico has been the most frequent destination: between January 2025 and March 2026, it received about 4,353 Cubans, most with criminal records, according to a report by Human Rights Watch. But African nations such as South Sudan, Eswatini, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, and the Central African Republic have also been used for Cubans that Cuba refused to accept.
The case of Martínez Ramírez is part of a sustained campaign by the Trump administration to expel from the country Cubans with criminal records who are serving sentences in federal and state prisons. According to a fact-check by PolitiFact published in early October, Trump has deported nearly 12,000 Cubans during his two presidential terms, about 8,500 of them since January 2025. More than 42,000 Cubans had final deportation orders pending in the United States, and in Florida alone, over 4,000 received those orders between October 2025 and June 2026.
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