Gilberto (a pseudonym), 52, came to the United States from Cuba in October 2023 on humanitarian parole. He worked as a gardener with his own truck in the Miami area, sending money to his mother, wife and young son in Cuba, and had a work permit and a residency application in process. "I came into this country legally, and immigration received me with open arms," he said. "They told me: congratulations, you have arrived in a free country. And look where I am." On August 2, 2025, on his way home from work, two patrol cars stopped him at the first traffic light. He showed his work permit, Social Security card and residency receipts and was told that without a green card he was being detained. "I haven't committed any violation. I haven't done anything," he said. He was held five months, including 29 days at "Alligator Alcatraz," where he says detainees went hungry. "I swear the best medicine I had was the Bible." At an October 2025 hearing he asked to be sent home to Cuba. When that did not happen, a deportation officer told him that signing voluntary departure to Mexico would get him out faster and that Mexico would send him on to Cuba. On January 7, 2026, he was walked into Tijuana shackled at the hands, feet and waist. "Never in my life had anyone put a pair of handcuffs on me." After four days on a bus he was released in Villahermosa "with the clothes on my back, no money, no ID, nothing." He spent his first week ever sleeping on the street and is working with the Cuban consulate and the International Organization for Migration to get home. HUMSI interviewed him in Villahermosa in September 2026.