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 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.
Copyright 2025 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.
