Octavio Pérez Rodríguez has been detained at the Krome Detention Center since February 25.
14ymedio, Havana, 31 March 2025 — Cuban migrant Octavio Pérez Rodríguez has spent more than a month without food or medical attention at the Krome Detention Center in Miami. According to his wife, Midalys López Corrales, “he’s desperate” and has asked for his deportation. “Titi, I’m dying, I’m in pain… You can’t imagine what I’m going through,” he told her in a phone call.
Deportation is very possible in Pérez Rodríguez’s case. The woman says he was deported in 2019 and broke the law by re-entering the country with her in 2022 through the Mexican border. “I know he made that mistake, but there has to be a solution. Deportation can’t be the only way out,” she said.
López Corrales told Telemundo that after a year in the U.S., Pérez Rodríguez applied for residency through the Cuban Adjustment Act and filed Form I-485.
During his stay in the country, the 36-year-old Cuban followed the requirements and was able to obtain a work permit to work as a truck driver. When he received an appointment to appear before authorities on February 25, he thought it was for residency because they asked him to bring a translator. However, he was detained.
“He went hoping to receive his papers. He’s a hard-working man; he renewed his work permit, and he didn’t expect this,” López Corrales told Telemundo.
His immigration status has been left in limbo. His wife said she has spent “eleven days sleeping on the floor” out of more than a month of detention. The woman reiterated in her account to Telemundo that her husband is not given medication to treat his ailments. “The conditions are terrible.”
Paul Chávez, director of the litigation program at Americans for Immigrant Justice, confirmed to Diario de Sonora the overcrowding in centers controlled by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “Many people are signing deportation orders simply to escape the horrible conditions.”
One migrant told USA Today that while she was detained, she saw people handcuffed and she spent hours without food or water. “We smelled worse than animals.” Another described the center as “a living hell.” The women said they live in unsanitary and overcrowded conditions, lacking access to bathrooms and showers. Raids against women have intensified due to overcrowding in the men’s centers.
ICE affirms that the incidents do not meet its policies or standards of care. However, it acknowledged that “some facilities are experiencing temporary overcrowding due to the recent surge in detainees.” It also stated that it is “implementing measures to manage capacity” and “maintain” its “commitment to humane treatment.”
However, complaints of inhumane conditions persist. Hundreds of people protested this Saturday outside the Krome facility, following multiple reports of appalling conditions and alleged abuse of women in custody at the all-male prison.
Protesters gathered outside the Detention Center to demand accountability from ICE regarding the situation of immigrants detained there, which has seen two deaths in its custody so far in 2025, EFE reported.
The Krome center came under the scrutiny of activists this year after the reported deaths of 29-year-old Honduran Genry Donaldo Ruiz-Guillén on January 23 and 44-year-old Ukrainian Maksym Chernyak on February 20. Both migrants were transferred to hospitals after being detained there. Protesters demanded an investigation and the closure of the detention center.
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