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 action. They did anyway, citing a communication error.
The Justice Department referred questions to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE. A Homeland Security spokesperson cited Romero León’s “extensive rap sheet,” which they say includes forgery, domestic violence, drug possession with intent to distribute and a weapons offense. Romero León was issued a final order of removal in 2002, but was allowed to remain on an order of supervision.
“Under President Trump and Secretary [Markwayne] Mullin, criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the United States,” the unidentified spokesperson said. “If a judge finds an illegal alien has no right to be in this country, we are going to remove them.”
Because Cuba’s communist government sometimes refuses to take back U.S. deportees, particularly those with criminal records, around 6,000 Cuban nationals have reportedly been deported to Mexico in the last year, under an informal, unwritten agreement.
“That agreement exists solely for removing a person from the United States to Mexico,” Special Assistant U.S. Atty. Whitney Wakefield told the judge during the hearing. “That is not going to cover if … a petitioner needs to be brought back to the United States. That will require a separate cooperation from the Mexican government, which unfortunately has not been attained at this point.”
Mexican officials did not respond to a request for comment.
Romero León is one of an unknown number of people who have been wrongfully deported from the U.S. despite a court order that they be allowed to remain in the country. During the hearing, Vera, a Biden appointee, said that the same happened in two other cases of his, but that after his orders they were quickly returned.
“Of course there are agreements for this to be done. But for some reason, here, there’s a glitch and I don’t know what it is,” Vera said. “He needs to be brought back.”
An arrest in Puerto Rico
Romero León told The Times that he fled Cuba because of political issues. He illegally entered the U.S. on Oct. 12, 1992, through Miami, according to Homeland Security.
According to ICE officials, in the late 90s and early 2000s Romero León was convicted of spousal battery, possession of marijuana for sale and forgery.
An immigration judge ordered Romero León’s removal in August 2002. But he was later released on an order of supervision and ordered to check in with ICE. He was convicted in March 2007 of a weapons offense and cruelty toward his wife. ICE redetained him in 2009 but released him again on an order of supervision that year.
Romero León lived in Puerto Rico for more than 20 years, making a living working in construction and other jobs.
On May 20, 2025, about a month before his scheduled check-in with ICE, officers arrested him at his home in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. He was transferred to the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, then to a detention center in Florence, Ariz., while he challenged his confinement in federal court. He cited the fact that it was unlikely Cuba would issue him a travel document to return to his native country in the near future.
On Feb. 13, Vera issued an order finding that Romero León had shown “both a probability of success on the merits and numerous forms of irreparable harm.” In bold letters in his order, Vera said the government was barred from removing Romero León to Mexico.
A wrongful deportation
Within days, ICE deported Romero León.
In court filings, his deputy federal public defender, Margaret Farrand, wrote that her client said he’d been left in the Mexican city of Tapachula with no money and no food.
After Vera demanded an explanation for the deportation, an ICE official said that “due to a large volume of district court orders received that weekend,” the order to not remove Romero León was not transmitted until the morning after his deportation.
“ICE realizes the vital importance of following Court orders, and is attempting to fix this situation as best it can,” Dade Gomez, an ICE deportation officer, said in a court declaration.
Failed attempts to return Romero León have been laid out in weekly status reports the government is required to submit to the court.
In order to get him on a plane, an ICE officer made him an identification document. But neither that nor two other forms of photographic identification from U.S. detention facilities “were sufficient to satisfy the Mexican Consulate.” Nor were the copies of his Puerto Rico ID and his birth certificate.
Then they decided to try a bus from Tapachula to a bus station near a port of entry. An ICE official said in a court declaration that the agency was unable to purchase the ticket because the government card “did not allow” it, prompting Farrand to purchase it herself.
Although Romero León was able to board the bus on April 11, he said he was almost immediately pulled off by Mexican authorities at a checkpoint and placed into a detention center.
“To me, it’s just frankly unbelievable that they do not have a system in place for making sure they’re not deporting people they’re ordered not to deport,” Farrand told The Times. “And that they don’t have a system to bring them back.”
Vera ordered everyone into his courtroom.
‘Forcing my hand’
At the April 23 hearing, Wakefield, the government attorney, said new options were being explored to get Romero León back, such as using “a boat through the Coast Guard.”
She laid much of the blame on a lack of cooperation south of the border. Vera asked whether she had anything in writing from Mexican officials to show this was the problem.
“The government has not earned the benefit of the doubt here for me to believe that that’s literally the response of the Mexican government,” Vera said.
“Unfortunately, we’re not able to compel any action of an independent, sovereign government,” Wakefield replied.
“Sure you can, of course you can,” Vera said. “You’ve done it in other cases.”
The judge questioned why ICE officials couldn’t send a van to pick up Romero León. Christopher Jenson, an ICE deportation officer, said that would require Mexico’s cooperation.
“That’s outside of our authority as the U.S. Government to just drive to pick him up,” Jenson said.
“What do you mean?” Vera said. “That the government can’t drive within the confines of Mexico?”
Jenson said the request would have to go through the U.S. Consulate in Mexico City.
“You’re forcing my hand to issue contempt sanctions,” Vera said. “It’s ridiculous to say we can’t send a van.”
Romero León was recently released from the detention center and said he was left at the border with Guatemala. He said he walked several miles back to Tapachula.
He said he was told by Mexican authorities that he needed to leave the country within five days. He’s currently sleeping on the patio of someone’s home.
Because he has no money, Romero León said, he’s still wearing the same clothes he had when he was deported.
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