Jhon Eduardo Hernández, Denis Durán Dávila and Hermes Sánchez López were arrested after appearing in Immigration Court in Miami.
14ymedio, Havana, 11 July 2025 — “If he’s deported to Cuba, he’ll kill himself,” says the wife of Cuban Jhon Eduardo Hernández, who was arrested last Wednesday after going to the immigration court in Miami and was then taken to “Alligator Alcatraz.” According to Adriana Rodríguez, that same day they arrested nine other Cubans with Form I-220A, known as the Order of Parole, including Denis Durán Dávila and Hermes Sánchez López. “It is quite inhumane what is happening with people who are working, paying taxes, doing everything correctly,” the woman stated.
None of the Cubans get bail, so they will have to appeal their case for asylum while in prison. Hernandez is afraid of being deported. He has told his wife that he has talked to some of the prisoners, and most agree that “there is no solution for them” and that “they won’t be released.” In addition, the conditions under which they are held are depressing.
Cuban reggaeton artist Leamsy Izquierdo, La Figura, who is also being held in the new immigration detention center, reported previously that they “are being treated like dogs.” Inmates are “given only one meal a day, sometimes with worms,” and the “lights stay on for 24 hours.” Also, “the mosquitoes look like elephants, and there is no water for bathing or flushing the toilets, which are overflowing.”
According to attorney Wilfredo Allen, the Trump administration is “creating fear and threatening people.” The lawyer told Univision journalist Javier Díaz that the US government has issued an order to arrest 3,000 people a day.
Data obtained by the Cato Institute reveal that “two thirds of the migrants admitted to the detention centers of the Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE) during this fiscal year had not been convicted of any crime” and that “most do not pose a serious threat to public safety.”
The Cato Institute stresses that “violent criminals, such as murderers, rapists and pedophiles, accounted for less than 7% of ICE’s arrests.” The figures confirm that immigration authorities increased the number of arrests of persons without criminal convictions from 448 per day to 927 per day in the first two weeks of June.
Cuban real estate agent Denis Duran Davila was arrested after going to the court. The case of this young man went viral on social networks after his mother knelt before ICE agents to beg them not to deport him. Attorney Wilfredo Allen stated that his client, a person who “has no criminal offenses, is producing, giving to society and following the rules of the game, was arrested.”
The wife of Hermes Sanchez Lopez confirmed her husband’s arrest after attending the court in Miami. She pointed out that the migrant entered the US in 2020 and has no record, and ICE transferred him to Alligator Alcatraz.
ICE arrests have been reported by several groups, such as Detention Resistance in San Diego. Barbara Stone, an American, is a member of the group and was arrested last Tuesday for recording a video with her cell phone of the transfer of a migrant. A female ICE officer reported the 71-year-old woman for pushing her.
Stone was handcuffed and held for eight hours. Upon being released, she told NBC 7 that her cell phone had not been returned. She showed a bruise to the media and said she felt “mentally and physically traumatized.”
Ruth Méndez, another Detention Resistance volunteer, noted that “fear is very, very real here. Every American should know that this is how their taxpayers’ money is being spent, and it’s really a shame. The people who are really suffering are those seeking asylum.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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