The case of Ivan Rodriguez Ponce, a 33-year-old Cuban, has raised alarm bells about the consequences of deportations in the United States. After three years in Texas, where he lived with a work permit as a maintenance engineer, he was repatriated to Cuba on August 30 without prior notice.

Today he says he feels “undocumented in his own country” and fears for his safety because he lacks documentation that can prove his identity.

An arrest that cut short his American dream

In an interview with Telemundo, Rodriguez Ponce revealed that he arrived in the United States in 2022 through an asylum application and settled in Austin, Texas, where he achieved job stability with a legal work permit in the maintenance area.

However, his path changed when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested him. After this, he spent nearly five months in a detention center, awaiting a response to his asylum request.

During that time, he presented evidence and arguments of political persecution, but his application was ultimately rejected. “With all the evidence, I requested asylum, but they denied me everything,” he said. The arrest meant, in his words, the beginning of a process that stripped him of everything he had built over more than three years.

The migrant confessed to feeling stripped of his basic rights from the moment of his detention. "I lost everything I worked for in three and a half years," he said, emphasizing that he never imagined his life in the United States would end so abruptly.

A deportation without warning and an uncertain future

The repatriation occurred without prior notification. Rodriguez Ponce said he was handcuffed and put on a plane without being informed of his destination. Only on the flight did he discover he was being taken back to Cuba, the same country he had fled in search of freedom.

Upon arrival, he reported that his documents had been retained in the United States and that, despite having a European passport, he was unable to avoid deportation. "I feel undocumented in my own country," he told Telemundo.Now he says he's under the watchful eye of the Cuban police, which increases his fear of possible reprisals.

Rodriguez Ponce sums up his situation with bitterness: "All my things, my sacrifice, I lost everything." For him, deportation meant not only the loss of the American dream, but also a return to a life marked by persecution and uncertainty.