Carlos del Pino and Yandi Valdes Rodriguez were taken to the Sumter County Jail and face 113 criminal charges
14ymedio, Havana, 31 January 2025 — Cubans Carlos del Pino, 34, and Yandi Valdés Rodríguez, 35, face 113 charges in Tampa, Florida, for crimes related to credit card forgery. The couple was arrested last Wednesday for various traffic violations on Interstate 75 (I-75) in Sumter County, and the Highway Patrol found cloning devices, 20 fake cards and dollars inside the vehicle.
Since the detainees were both of Cuban origin, the presence of the Border Patrol was requested when they were arrested to verify their immigration status. Since last Sunday, the Office of the Department of Homeland Security (HSI) and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) have been carrying out anti-immigrant raids in the state.
The immigration agency specified that Del Pino “had an active deportation order in force since 2019” but was “on probation.”
The data obtained by the Sumter authorities showed that the 2019 Range Rover truck driven by Del Pino had multiple infractions. The migrant also has a criminal record related to the falsification of credit cards.
Del Pino and Valdés were arrested and taken to the Sumter County jail while the investigation is being carried out.
Last Wednesday, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, promulgated the Laken Riley Act, which empowers federal authorities to deport migrants who are in the country illegally and who have been accused of crimes.
“It is a law that authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to arrest and deport people who are accused of crimes,” said Mario J. Pentón, speaking to a lawyer from the Gallardo law firm. “The interesting thing about this rule is that they can arrest people who have not even been convicted,” and it is enough for them to have a case in process in a Federal Court.
The lawyer trusts that this new legislation will generate a debate for being “a violation” of the Constitution. Pentón said that in the Migration Courts, “when you request bail, you have not been convicted of any crime.”
However, he acknowledged that there are criminal charges such as “murder, terrorist acts and actions that are considered aggravated crimes” that make you inadmissible in the United States. “These people will be deported and will be subject to this law,” he stressed.
The new rule has been extended to minor crimes such as “theft and assault.” However, the lawyer specifies that the Migration Law establishes that “a store robbery is considered an exception when considered a case of “moral turpitude,” an act that violates community standards, and the courts can limit the rule for its final application.
Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he would send the “worst foreign criminals” to a detention center at the Guantánamo Naval Base in Cuba. “Some of them are so bad that we don’t even trust their own countries to keep them. We don’t want them to come back, so we’re going to send them to Guantánamo,” he said.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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