Havana/“I have lost between 40 and 45 pounds,” confesses Liosbel Sánchez to 14ymedio After being released on Monday in the United States by the Customs Immigration and Control Service (ICE). He and his brother, Liosmel Sánchez, participated in Cuba in the protests of July 11, 2021, and after suffering harassment and political threats decided to flee the island.
Both crossed the border on December 3, 2024, after spending approximately one year in Mexico. They entered the United States through a parolethrough the CBP One application. Without criminal history or criminal history, they requested political asylum, claiming that their participation in the protests of the 11J and their activism made them white of persecution on the island, where hundreds of protesters received very high prison sentences.
Liosbel is 28 years old and worked in Cuba as a medium computer technician. Liosmel, three years younger, studied medicine at the Manuel Fajardo Faculty of Medical Sciences. The two grew in Havana and expressed their discontent with the political situation of the country through memes on social networks. When the tiredness led to mass protests on July 11, 2021, they did not hesitate to join the demonstrations. They believed that this would mean the end of the dictatorship, without imagining the strong repression that would come later.
Both were threatened by state security, Liosmel with the possibility of losing their university career, and Liosbel with frequent inspections to their plumbing business, suspicious robberies, surveillance and frequent visits of alleged inspectors.
The brothers were transferred to different detention centers in Arizona
On May 20, 2025 they appeared before an immigration judge in Phoenix (Arizona). But at that audience his asylum case was dismissed, and when he left the court They were immediately arrested By ICE agents. The brothers were transferred to different detention centers in Arizona, Liosbel was taken to Florence, and Liosmel to the center of Eloy.
“Bad food, laws that are violated there … treated us as animals,” he confesses to this newspaper. After four months in migratory prison, Liosbel claims to have lost between 18 and 20 kilograms, due to stress, poor diet and detention conditions. His physical and mental health has been tested after May 20, especially for the fear of being deported at the same place that he had to escape with his brother, for obviously political reasons.
In his words, last Friday he had an hearing in which both his lawyer and the judge agreed that “there were no legal reasons to keep him imprisoned, because asylum evidence were well founded.” At that audience it was determined that it should be released. Liosbel is confident that Liosmel, who has a hearing this Friday, also goes free, because “the case is the same”, the same lawyer represents them and the same judge corresponds to them.
“Back to Cuba was never an option”
Since their detention, irregularities have been denounced in the process, as interviews with “credible fear” carried out without the presence of lawyers, at unusual schedules, and immediate arrests after judicial hearings without clear notification to the defenders. The risk of being deported to Cuba was for them the greatest concern. “If before the Cuban regime only had assumptions to punish us,” he tells this newspaper, “now they are certain, because the story is already public.” Liosbel is confident that both he and his brother can benefit from the Cuban adjustment law when the year and one day of having arrived in US territory.
Not having close relatives in the US, their legal defense and the costs of the procedures depended on solidarity campaigns, collection of funds such as Gofundme, and support of friends such as activist Cristhian González.
With a quiet and serene voice, despite a terrible experience during the last four months, Liosbel does not lose hope of staying in the United States and fulfilling his dreams. “I left Cuba for the abuses and the abuses I suffered. Back to Cuba was never an option.”
