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 routine 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 one of at least five men who were transferred this summer to a maximum-security prison in the southern African nation of Eswatini, a country that has faced international criticism for alleged human rights abuses.
Immigration advocates say the move appears to be part of the Trump administration’s third-country deportation program, which they argue violates due process protections and international human rights standards.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, Mosquera was classified as one of “the worst of the worst,” citing a murder conviction. However, court documents show he was convicted of attempted murder in the 1980s in Miami-Dade County and has already served his sentence.
His attorney stated that Mosquera, who has lived in the U.S. since arriving from Cuba at age 9 and worked as a plumber for many years, rebuilt his life after prison — and is now reportedly on a hunger strike while being held in Eswatini.
