MIAMI — The Cuban national who was snatched by immigration officers as he took out his trash would rather be deported than endure the fetid conditions in a New Mexico detention facility, his loved ones say.

Eduardo Nuñez Gonzalez, 60, stepped outside his North Miami home to take out the trash about 7 a.m. on March 20, unaware that ICE officers were waiting for him. Footage from the Ring video camera at his home captured the moment — Nuñez Gonzalez tossing his trash bag into the bin, a man in a law enforcement vest stepping out of a car across the street and then running up behind him to handcuff him.

Vilma Perez Delgado said her husband had no deportation order and was never read his rights. The couple, both Cuban nationals with Spanish citizenship, applied for a green card at the same time in 2015, after moving from Spain the year before.

Yet their cases went in completely different directions: her residency application was quickly approved, and she went on to become a U.S. citizen in January 2025. His first application for residency was denied in 2022, after seven years of waiting — an unusually long delay.

“Seven years is a significantly long period of time for a Cuban Adjustment [application] to be waiting, so that, in and of itself, tells me that there’s a much bigger issue,” said Rebeca Sanchez-Roig, senior managing attorney with Catholic Legal Services in Miami.

Such delays, she suggested, could stem from concerns related to an applicant’s criminal history or affiliations with groups the U.S. government considers a threat. In cases of denial, individuals do not simply disappear from government records.

“If there is an issue of that sort, and you’re denied, well then at some point ... you’re on their radar screen,” she said. “This is something that they do, and that’s done in protection of the United States.”

Perez Delgado said her husband has no criminal history. When she asked for an explanation from two men in FBI uniforms who accompanied the immigration agents that morning, she was simply told they were assisting with an “immigration situation” and advised her to hire an attorney. They did not let her say goodbye or give him his Spanish passport.

According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, “Nunez Gonzalez is an unlawfully present alien with dual citizenship from Cuba and Spain.

“Nunez Gonzalez legally entered the country Nov. 14, 2014, and failed to comply with the terms of his admission,” ICE said in a statement to the Miami Herald.

Desperate for answers after his detainment, Perez Delgado contacted multiple attorneys, but most told her there was nothing they could do. She said some attorneys she spoke to were charging up to $15,000 upfront. The family started a GoFundMe to help with legal costs.

When she finally found one willing to take the case, the attorney discovered Gonzalez had been moved from Krome Detention Center in Florida and ultimately wound up at a detention center in New Mexico.

Shackled to New Mexico

Nuñez Gonzalez spent his first three days at Krome.

He never showered or changed clothes. Perez Delgado has not been able to see him since his arrest but has managed to speak with him on the phone. She said he described overcrowded conditions at Krome, where detainees were crammed into a waiting room.

“And that waiting room was for maybe 15 people, and there were 100 people,” she said in Spanish from her North Miami home. “He had to sleep on the floor, on a chair—wherever he could—because people were on top of each other.”

At Krome, Perez Delgado said, “they didn’t notify him of anything, they didn’t read him any rights, they didn’t tell him what the charges were or anything.”

Gonzalez was then transferred to the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach, where he finally had access to a bed and shower. Perez Delgado had arranged to visit him, but before she could, he was transferred once again — this time in the middle of the night.

But, she said, his experience at Krome pales in comparison to where he was transferred next: the Torrance County Detention Facility in New Mexico.

Authorities placed him in handcuffs, shackled his feet, and chained his waist before flying him out of Miami International Airport.

”He says he did not know if they were flying him to Cuba, to Spain, or where, because they never told him,” Perez Delgado said.

She said he remains permanently restrained at the facility, with a chain around his waist. One hand is freed just long enough to hold the receiver when making phone calls. He is isolated, without visitors, and suffering from chronic bronchitis with no medical attention, according to Perez Delgado.

Nuñez Gonzalez, according to his wife, said that he does not know what time of day it is as he has never been allowed to leave his cell.

The Torrance Detention Facility has been under fire before by civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union. In a March 2024 letter addressed to Micheal D. Lumpkin, the then-chief of staff for ICE, the ACLU urged the agency to end its contract with the New Mexico facility.

“ICE should terminate its detention contract at Torrance due to well-documented dangerous conditions, persistent understaffing, and chronic violations of federal detention standards,” the ACLU wrote.

‘He should be deported to Spain’

Both Perez Delgado and Nuñez Gonzalez are Cuban nationals who previously lived in Spain and hold Spanish citizenship. She said they officially requested his deportation to Spain but are unsure how long that will take.

“In this tragedy, we decided as a family that he should be deported, that he should be deported to Spain,” Perez Delgado said.

ICE’s detainee search shows Nuñez Gonzalez remains in custody at Torrance as of Tuesday.

She said the family is willing to pay for his plane ticket back to Spain, where his daughter and two grandchildren live. Nuñez Gonzalez said that in Torrance, he was given a computer tablet where he could make requests.

“We officially asked for him to be transferred to Spain,” Perez Delgado said. “He officially requested it through the tablet.”

According to Sanchez-Roig, people can choose to leave the United States whenever they want — documented or undocumented.

People who are not in removal proceedings can simply purchase a ticket, use their home country’s passport, and return to their country of origin. It’s a process commonly referred to as self-deportation, she detailed.

For those in immigration detention or formal removal proceedings, the process requires additional steps. If someone is in removal proceedings, they need an official order from an immigration judge before they can be deported, Sanchez-Roig said.

However, they can request “voluntary departure,” which allows them to leave without a formal removal order on their record, Sanchez-Roig said.

“Nunez Gonzalez was arrested by special agents with Homeland Security Investigations on March 20, 2025, as he is subject to a final order of removal,” ICE said in a statement. “He will remain in ICE custody pending his removal from the country.”

Green card denied — after waiting 7 years

The couple met in Spain and have been together since 1994. They each had two children when they met and raised their families together. She said her husband has been in her children’s lives since they were young and that they consider him their father.

The couple decided to move to the United States in 2014, and both applied to adjust their immigration status under the Cuban Adjustment Act the following year, which allows Cuban nationals who arrived in the U.S. after Jan. 1, 1959, to apply for a green card after living in the United States for at least a year. President Lyndon Johnson signed the Act into law in 1966, seven years after Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba.

In 2022, immigration officials denied Nuñez Gonzalez a green card, seven years after waiting.

They were told by immigration officers that his documents had expired, leading to a denial, according to Perez Delgado. They reapplied with updated documentation, including criminal records from Spain and Cuba, proving he had never been sanctioned by any court and had no criminal record in any of the countries where they had lived, including the United States, she said.

They submitted his new application in June 2023 and never heard back.

Then, 18 days ago, he was arrested. There had been no prior notification or warning, she said.

The case illustrates the complexity of immigration applications, which Sanchez-Roig said are often far more difficult than people assume.

“I think people generally say, ‘Oh, it’s just an application. I can just fill it out.’ And it’s not just an application. You’re swearing to the veracity of the information on that application. And it’s much more complicated to fill it out than one thinks,” she said.

Errors or misunderstandings on immigration paperwork can lead to denials, and prolonged delays often signal serious concerns, she added.

“It’s difficult to be able to say that, well, there was no reason for the denial when there is very likely a good reason for the denial,” Sanchez-Roig said. “A seven-year delay is huge.”

Perez Delgado said her husband’s case experienced delays due to lost paperwork.

“ICE lost his file because when he had been waiting for about two and a half years, they called him for an interview, and when he went to the interview, his file didn’t appear, and they told him, “No, you have to wait for another date,” she said.

Sanchez-Roig said that, on average, a response time is less than a year.

A few days after her husband’s arrest, Perez Delgado said she got a letter in the mail saying that his green card had once again been denied.

Now, she is struggling to manage their business, Chaveli Towing, which they started in 2018.

Perez Delgado said that despite being detained, her husband has been calling their employees to keep their spirits up about their jobs and the business. She described him as a hard-working man who is always willing to help others.

She emphasized that her husband has always had work permits. Sanchez-Roig explained that his work permit would have granted him legal protection as he waited for a response to his green card application but it would have been revoked once he was denied the green card.

Her husband’s detention has left Perez Delgado emotionally distraught, but she finds strength in her Christian faith. And she is prepared to follow him to Spain if he is deported.

“He is my best friend,” she said.

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