Aristides Fernandez Garcia, a 37-year-old Cuban asylum seeker, was detained by ICE after leaving his second immigration court hearing in Miami. He entered the U.S. through Arizona in 2021 after fleeing Cuba and traveling through Mexico, where he said he was kidnapped and robbed. On July 31, 2026, he was deported alongside roughly 80 other detainees, including Cubans, an Ecuadorian, and a Honduran, on a flight whose destination was not revealed to them until an armed guard confirmed mid-flight they were headed to Africa. The flight landed in Bangui, Central African Republic, a country under the U.S. government's highest travel advisory. Fernandez says he was stripped of his identification, money, and cell phone, given only a 90-day visa, and confined to a hotel room by local authorities, with no embassy support, ability to work, or legal pathway to leave. He said all of the detainees' rights were violated by ICE.