Roberto (a pseudonym) came to the United States from Cuba at age five and lived there 47 years as a green card holder. He built a landscaping business and an appliance business, stayed married for 32 years and bought his children a house in New Jersey. In spring 2025, driving back to Florida after visiting his kids, he fell asleep in a 24-hour laundromat in Eustis, Florida, while his laundry ran, and woke up to officers checking immigration papers. He was handed to ICE and spent the next eight to nine months detained, most of it at "Alligator Alcatraz" in the Florida Everglades. "We felt like dogs, because they let us out for meals and then back in the cage," he said. "Maybe every other day you get an hour of sun." There were three toilets for more than 50 men, and when men passed out, the others had to bang on the bars to get help. Abscesses that broke out on his arms and hands in detention were still open when HUMSI met him. "It was all a waiting game. Waiting and waiting and waiting to see what happens," he said. In January 2026 officers told him, "Just get on the bus if you want to leave. You don't have to sign any papers." He says he never saw a judge. He was flown shackled to Arizona and driven three and a half days into Mexico without being allowed off the bus. "I want to be with my family," he said. HUMSI interviewed him in Tapachula, Mexico, in September 2026, where he was stranded with everything he owned in a small plastic bag.