MIRAMAR, Fla. — Monica Mosquera said it felt cruel.
Just days before Father’s Day, her father, Roberto Mosquera, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in South Florida during his annual check-in. But instead of being deported to his native Cuba, he was sent to Africa.
“How do we go from me hugging my dad one day to him being in a different country — and in prison, for what?” she said.
The 58-year-old is among at least five men transferred this summer to a maximum-security prison in the southern African kingdom of Eswatini, a nation criticized for alleged human rights abuses.
Advocates say the move is part of the Trump administration’s third-country deportation program, which they argue violates due process rights.
The Department of Homeland Security labeled Mosquera as one of “the worst of the worst,” citing a murder conviction. But court records show he was convicted of attempted murder in the 1980s in Miami-Dade County and served his sentence.
His attorney said Mosquera, a longtime plumber who came to the U.S. from Cuba at age 9, rebuilt his life after prison and is now on a hunger strike in Eswatini.
🏠 News From Your Neighborhood
Copyright 2025 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.
