Ochopee, FL — After more than six months in detention at “Alligator Alcatraz”, a federal judge has ordered the release of a 63-year-old man.
The release, ordered June 30, 2026, came after a hard-fought, two-round legal battle.
“We are gratified to have helped one man regain his freedom to go back to work in this community. And we are proud to do our part in standing up to the governmental abuse of constitutional rights,” said lead counsel, Stephen Rosenthal of Podhurst Orseck.
The Cuban native arrived in the United States during the 1980 Mariel boatlift and has lived in the U.S. for more than four decades.
Podhurst Orseck attorneys Stephen F. Rosenthal and Christina H. Martinez represented the man pro bono, along with Kelly Catherine Walker of Grossman Young & Hammond LLC, Andrew Udelsman of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Jessica Duque of Rabin & Lopez, P.A., and with the expertise of Ana Ionescu of Catholic Legal Services, and dedicated assistance of Sandra Rodriguez.
The Cuban native had been living under an Order of Supervision after an immigration judge ordered his removal to Cuba in 1998. Because Cuba has historically refused to accept the return of many Mariel-era Cubans, ICE had determined that his removal was not reasonably foreseeable and released him under supervision, which required him to check in with the agency periodically. He complied with those requirements for years.
On November 19, 2025, he appeared for a scheduled check-in but was taken into custody.
The legal team filed its first petition for a writ of habeas corpus on his behalf in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida on March 18, 2026, arguing that his detention violated his due process rights and exceeded what federal law allows. The government opposed the petition, telling the court that the Cuban man had refused to cooperate when ICE attempted to remove him to Mexico at the border.
In May, the court initially denied the man’s petition, accepting the government’s account that he had impeded his own removal. Critically, however, the court denied the petition without prejudice.
The pro bono legal team went back to work.
Counsel obtained sworn declarations from the Cuban detainee himself and from a fellow detainee who witnessed the same events at the Mexican border. Their accounts told a different story than the one the government had presented. The men said ICE agents explicitly told them they did not have to get off the bus and did not have to enter Mexico. They said it was presented as a voluntary, optional choice.
Armed with this evidence, Podhurst Orseck and the legal team filed a renewed habeas petition in June, and formally submitted supplemental declarations, putting the government on notice of this evidence well ahead of its deadline to respond.
On June 30, 2026, Judge Kyle C. Dudek agreed. The federal court found the government had failed to rebut the man’s declarations, noting that the record contained no documents, no diplomatic agreements, and no concrete evidence that he would be removed in the near future. The court ordered ICE to release him within 48 hours, subject to the same conditions of supervision he had complied with for years before his re-detention.
“If the government is going to detain someone to remove them from the country, it should have a plan to do so, not hold people in lengthy captivity in poor conditions. We are thrilled that our client can return to being a productive member of society,” said Rosenthal.
