José Francisco García had been trying to obtain US citizenship for a decade.
14ymedio, Havana, 4 April 2025 — José Francisco García Rodríguez, 73, who arrived in the United States during the Mariel boatlift—the seaborne stampede of more than 125,000 Cubans in 1980—has been detained since March 31 at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing center in Pine Prairie, Louisiana. His family fears the deportation of a man who fled Fidel Castro nearly half a century ago.
García Rodríguez was detained while at a Circle K store. Two weeks earlier, according to his stepdaughter, Christian Cooper Riggs, the Cuban expressed concern about being arrested and sent to Cuba. However, she did not specify whether the migrant had a green card.
In a video posted on social media, Riggs criticized the fact that immigration in the US “is a problem that can be solved with a scalpel. Not a machete.” She emphasized that the arrest of an elderly man with a heart condition, who is also the primary caregiver for his wife, who suffers from dementia, is not a solution to anything.
“I understand we have an immigration problem. I really do,” the woman acknowledged, also admitting that the country “can’t accommodate all the people who cross its borders and that there are some really bad people who have to be confronted.”
Riggs said García Rodríguez arrived in the US like thousands of migrants, with only the clothes on his back and no English. “He fought, made mistakes, and paid for them.” For 43 years, he has been an exemplary father and has worked between 40 and 60 hours a week. “He pays taxes and contributes to Social Security, which he has never collected,” she argued.
He tried for a decade to obtain citizenship, but gave up three years ago when lawyers suggested it was better to keep a low profile.
He tried for a decade to obtain citizenship, but gave up three years ago when lawyers suggested it was better to keep a low profile.
ICE detention centers are operating at capacity. According to the agency’s most recent data, updated as of March 27, there were 47,304 people in custody in federal, state, and private facilities. The system’s capacity has been strained by the increase in raids and targeted operations.
President Donald Trump’s plan for mass deportations has been joined by a new approach that will require greater collaboration from the state prison system to locate and detain immigrants on parole, even for minor offenses.
In an interview with EFE, immigration attorneys in Utah denounced the poor practices of ICE in that state since last December, when parole officers began directly arresting immigrants as they showed up for their scheduled appointments, even for minor offenses.
“The practice is dishonest,” attorney Adam Crayk told the Salt Lake Tribune, alleging that officers “ask immigrants to report, and then ICE detains them.”
For their part, attorneys Chris Keen and Orlando Luna stated that this situation has undermined the confidence of both immigrants and their legal advocates in the U.S. judicial system.
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