Cuban deported by ICE to Liberia ends up stranded in Equatorial Guinea
Aug 20, 2026 · LA, Cuba

Carlos Rodríguez López, a Cuban national held in ICE detention for 16 months, was deported on a flight to Liberia under a new U.S.-Liberia removal agreement, but upon arrival authorities refused to accept him and instead transported him and other Cubans to a hotel in Equatorial Guinea without documents or a passport. His wife, Igrayne Ribot Hernández, a U.S. citizen who has a nine-year-old daughter and runs a family business, said a habeas corpus petition filed in November 2025 with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana remains unresolved. Ribot said her husband, who has a prior criminal record for which he served time, is being held against his will in a hotel he cannot leave, alongside three other Cubans, one of whom recently had stomach surgery and has an exposed wound.
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