Eric González Peña, a 44-year-old Cuban residing in Texas, published an extensive testimony on Facebook in which he denounces his deportation to the Central African Republic on October 21, after being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at his workplace and spending nearly six months in a detention center in El Paso.
«I left very early one day to go to work. I didn’t say goodbye to my son or my wife because I didn’t want to wake them. I never imagined that would be the last day I would spend with them, nor that I might never see them again,» González wrote in his public statement regarding the deportation to Africa.
González has been married for six years to Isabel Estua, a U.S. citizen, and they have a three-year-old son. According to his account, after several months of detention, ICE handed him a document in October committing to evaluate his release after 90 days if he met ten requirements.
He met all the requirements, but was not released. Authorities claimed there was a flight risk, despite him providing evidence of assets, lease agreements, and family ties in the country.
Thirteen days before completing 180 days of detention, he was informed that he would remain in custody for an alleged lack of cooperation with his deportation. "That's false: I submitted my travel documents and cooperated with the process," González asserted.
On October 20, he was moved to a tent camp, and the following day he was boarded from Alexandria, Louisiana, on a flight lasting between 50 and 60 hours, with stopovers in Senegal, Equatorial Guinea, and Burundi.
He did not know what his destination was until he was in the air. That same flight transported about 90 migrants handcuffed and shackled, 69 of whom were Cuban; some were restrained with straitjackets and gags after protesting.
The González family informed CiberCuba that they had an approved family I-130 petition and a pending habeas corpus resource. A judge had set November 1 as the protection date against their deportation, but he was expelled 11 days earlier.
Upon arriving in Bangui, González lacked migration documents, legal status, and a work permit. As of November 3, he was sharing accommodation with about 32 people, without access to medication and living in constant fear of diseases like malaria and yellow fever, according to reported by Telemundo 51.
Meanwhile, his wife had to leave Texas and move to another city as she could no longer manage the household expenses on her own. She was left in charge of three children —including their son— and an elderly woman.
"I felt treated like a dog, like a slave sold to the highest bidder. I could only cry and think about my son and my wife," González wrote. He added: "I believe what was done to me is a form of human trafficking and psychological and emotional abuse. Where are the human rights and the respect for the Constitution that are so proclaimed in the United States?"
The case of González is situated within the deportation policy to third countries of the Trump administration, formalized through a agreement with the Central African Republic signed in May 2026 that included a payment of 85 million dollars. Since then, more than 25,000 people have been expelled through this program, according to Los Ángeles Times.
The lawyer Wilfredo Allen warned that returning to the United States is practically impossible for those with a final deportation order, and only feasible in very specific cases where there were pending legal resources without a final resolution.
"I left Cuba seeking freedom and found detention, abuse, and a devastating separation from my family. I ask for justice. I am a father and a husband who wants to return to my family," González concluded in his testimony.
El caso de Eric González refleja la realidad que enfrentan miles de inmigrantes ante las políticas migratorias actuales. Sigue toda la información sobre detenciones, deportaciones y derechos en nuestra sección de
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