Yosvany (a pseudonym), 40, came to the United States from Cuba in 1994 at age nine and grew up in Florida, where he worked as an electrician. He held a green card and had applied for citizenship. "I had everything straight. I was working, I was legal, I was doing everything," he said. He was detained in January 2026, and his green card was taken over past convictions. He spent about three of his five months in custody at "Alligator Alcatraz," expecting to be sent to Cuba. "I spent three months in Alcatraz just waiting to get over here. It's like a tank. The food is freaking garbage." Around July 2026 he was deported to Mexico instead and left in Palenque, Chiapas, where he slept outside a bar for his first month. His girlfriend and their newborn son are in the United States. He is working a construction job and sharing a room with a cousin who was also deported. "I wasn't used to being broke like I'm here now." HUMSI interviewed him in Palenque in September 2026.