Luis Manuel Gómez Torres, the 37-year-old Cuban who moved millions with his plea from a hospital bed in Miami for a humanitarian visa for his mother, passed away after a hard battle with leukemia, as confirmed on Facebook by Vivian Paz Paz, who had accompanied and documented his case in recent days.
Paz announced the news with a memorial image and the words: "With deep sorrow, Luisi, as we affectionately called him, has just left our earthly world. Rest in peace, we will miss you."
Originally from Ciego de Ávila, Luis Manuel had been diagnosed with leukemia in December 2024.
On Thursday, his case went viral on social media after the release of a video recorded from his hospital room, in which he pleaded with U.S. immigration authorities to allow his mother to travel from Cuba to be by his side.
"I am asking for mercy to be allowed to have it here. I am in very bad shape, I ask you as a favor, I beg you, to let me see, to give me the opportunity to have it here, since I don't know what is going to happen with my life, since it is a very serious illness," said Luis Manuel in the video.
In his final hours, Vivian Paz Paz visited him in the hospital and reported that he could only take a few sips of beef broth and that he was "very fragile and experiencing fluid retention," adding that he "longed to have his mother with him during this difficult time."
The journalist Guillermo Rodríguez Sánchez described the disease as "fulminant leukemia," which "suddenly appears in young and healthy individuals, rapidly deteriorating all vital functions of the body."
Luis Manuel requested to be transferred to Cuba to die in his homeland, but that option was dismissed for medical reasons: according to Rodríguez Sánchez, "he cannot board a plane in such a condition; it is unfeasible —he would die upon gaining altitude— and from a medical legality standpoint, it is an inadmissible request."
The only available migration option for her mother was individual humanitarian parole through Form I-131, the approval of which is entirely discretionary.
The CHNV program, which facilitated the legal travel of Cubans to the U.S. through sponsor-based parole, was canceled by the Trump administration in January 2025, closing an alternative that many families in similar situations had relied on.
Activists called for the intervention of Cuban-American Congress members María Elvira Salazar, Carlos A. Giménez, and Mario Díaz-Balart, arguing that “it is not asking for money, luxury, or privileges. It is asking for something that no child should have to beg for: the embrace of their mother when they need it the most.”
It was not publicly reported whether Luis Manuel's mother was able to obtain permission or if she could meet with her son before his death.
Luis Manuel leaves behind his wife, his parents, and three children: a pair of six-year-old twin boys and a girl.
His case joins a painful list of similar situations.
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