Omar (a pseudonym) came to the United States from Cuba through the visa lottery at the Guantánamo base and lived there 25 years. In Phoenix, Arizona, he built auto parts for Tesla, held a yearly work permit and reported to ICE, because Cuba would not take him back under an old removal order. He also writes songs. "I've composed 211 songs," he said. In about June 2025 he was stopped for speeding near Phoenix. His girlfriend posted his $500 bond, but ICE was waiting when he was released. He was held almost three months at the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona, including about a week in a punishment cell. On September 2, 2025, he and five other men refused removal to Mexico. "Today you're going to Mexico, whether you want to or not," he recalls being told. "They put each of us in a room and sent five guards into each room, with helmets, and took us by force. They split my head open, they tore up this whole finger. They recorded all of it; it's on video." He says three of his ribs were broken. Shackled at the feet, hands and waist, he was taken across the border and bused three days to Villahermosa, where he was released without papers. He now sells cigarettes on the street. "When you go to bed and when you get up, it's an enormous sadness," he said. "Sometimes you wish God would make it the end." "Everyone deserves a chance," he said. HUMSI interviewed him in Villahermosa in September 2026.