Cuban man held over a year in ICE detention fights indefinite confinement in court
Antonio Frometa Ascón, a 63-year-old Cuban immigrant who came to the U.S. in 1994 and was paroled through Guantánamo, has been held by ICE since Aug. 14, 2025, after Florida Highway Patrol stopped him on his way to work under a state immigration crackdown called Operation Tidal Wave. He was first held at the South Florida Detention Facility, where he alleges a guard's blow left him partially deaf, then transferred to Camp East Montana in El Paso and later to the ICE El Paso Service Processing Center, all while missing the birth of his first granddaughter. Cuba and Mexico have both refused or complicated his removal, and he has filed pro se and attorney-assisted habeas petitions arguing his detention violates the Supreme Court's Zadvydas v. Davis limits on indefinite detention; a federal judge has yet to rule as his health declines and his family says he has grown depressed awaiting word from his lawyer.
