Havana/“It was done,” Cuban activist Cristhian González de la Moneda celebrated Monday on the social network X, informing that Liosmel Sánchez, brother of Liosbel, had just been released by the United States immigration and customs control service (ICE) of the United States. With his departure, the prison odyssey of the Sánchez brothers, two young people who participated in the protests of July 11, 2021 in Cuba and who had been arrested in Arizona on May 20.
Liosmel, 25, had been transferred to the Eloy’s immigration detention center, while his older brother, Liosbel, 28, was in Florence. Both entered American territory on December 3, 2024 as beneficiaries of the Temporary Permissions Program (parole) managed through the CBP One application. After almost a year in Mexico, they managed to access US territory.
Without criminal history and with a solid case of political asylum, the brothers seemed to have the clear path. However, on May 20, 2025, after an hearing in Phoenix in which the judge rejected his request, They were arrested immediately by ICE and sent to migratory centers. The measure generated concern between activists and human rights defenders, who denounced the arbitrariness of the process and the danger they faced if they were deported to Cuba.
A week ago, Liosbel was released after a new hearing in which the judge and the lawyer agreed that “there was no reason to keep him imprisoned.” The young man himself He related to 14ymedio That during his imprisonment he lost between 40 and 45 pounds, suffered poor diet and described the treatment within the detention centers such as “inhuman.” “They treated us as animals,” he said. Even so, he was confident that his brother was also released, since “the case is the same, with the same lawyer and before the same judge.”
This case also sheds light on the migratory limbo in which thousands of Cubans are in the US
This prognosis was fulfilled on Monday with the release of Liosmel, who can now meet with his brother and continue the legal process to benefit from the Cuban adjustment law, next December. “Returning to Cuba was never an option,” Liosbel insisted on recent statements, remembering that the security of the state harassed them since 11j: the minor received threats to lose his medicine career and the major was harassed in his small plumbing business.
The campaign for its release included a collection of funds in Gofundme, promoted by friends and acquaintances, destined to cover the costs of legal defense. Without direct relatives in the US, the support network has been key to face expenses and disseminate its case on social networks and independent media. The activist Cristhian González (@Sanmemero), a Cuban exile based in Miami, was one of the main spokesmen of the cause and He celebrated the news In X with a brief but forceful: “They are both free.”
The outcome relieves the fear that the brothers were deported to the island, where they could face more severe reprisals than those suffered after the 11J protests. Hundreds of protesters of that day still remain in prison with sentences of up to 20 years, in the midst of a repressive climate that has spread in recent years. “If before the Cuban regime only had assumptions to punish us, they now have certainties, because our history is public,” said Liosbel.
The release of both brothers also sheds light on the migratory limbo in which thousands of Cubans are found in the US that came through CBP One. Although they legally entered, many face legal obstacles and delays in the asylum processes, being exposed to unexpected arrests. Defense organizations have warned that ICE is using restrictive interpretations of the law to justify arrests of asylum applicants with pending cases.
