Failed plane and bus trips: How ICE can't bring back man wrongfully deported to Mexico
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The U.S.government had no trouble deporting Lazaro Romero León to Mexico in February, despite a California federal judge’s order that the Cuban national stay in this country.The problem now, government officials claim, is getting him back.
First, Immigration and Customs Enforcement considered putting Romero León on a plane from the Mexican state of Chiapas to the U.S.But U.S.
officials say the Mexican government won’t accept his identification documents to board a flight.Then, ICE tried to put him on a bus — the $350 ticket was paid by Romero León’s deputy federal public defender.But long before he reached the border, his attorney said, he was pulled off the bus by Mexican authorities for not having sufficient documents and placed into a detention center.Now, government officials say they’re talking to the Coast Guard about bringing him by boat.The complicated, two-month saga to return Romero León was laid bare during a court hearing in downtown Los Angeles on April 23, during which a judge excoriated the government for not complying with his order to immediately return the 59-year-old and threatening to issue contempt sanctions.“I’m going to need it to be elevated and to have higher channels get this done,” U.S.
District Judge Hernán D.Vera said during the hearing.
“It just can’t be that they’re going to refuse to return someone who was erroneously deported.”Romero León is among thousands of Cubans arrested by ICE last year.The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, reported that ICE arrests of Cubans jumped from fewer than 200 a month in late 2024 to more than 1,000 per month in late 2025.
In December, Romero León filed a petition for the federal court to review the legality of his detention, noting it was unlikely that Cuba would take him back.Vera ordered the government not to deport Romero León pending the resolution of his legal acti...