It has been eight months since U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Yamile Alcantu, and her partner of 20 years, Wayne DeMario, has been in a lot of pain.
DeMario, the owner of Wayne’s Guitar World in Miami-Dade County, said he and Alcantu were fierce supporters of President Donald Trump and never imagined their nightmare.
“They grabbed her, put her in shackles and chains,” DeMario said, adding that after she was “kidnapped,” ICE held her at a detention center in Jacksonville and moved her to Louisiana.
DeMario said Alcantu moved to the U.S. from Cuba 25 years ago through a Visa Lottery, a State Department program. They didn’t think her immigration status would be a problem, and he voted for Trump.
“I really thought this was just going to be something more organized, but it’s obviously not,” DeMario said about Trump’s deportations. “They just blanket everybody.”
DeMario said Alcantu had a run-in with the law during a traffic stop, and as a result of the case, she received a deportation order in 2008.
“They go through her purse, and then they dump the purse out, and three Xanax pills fall out,” DeMario said.
Alcantu was checking in with ICE in June, as she had done annually for years. From the detention facility in Louisiana, Alcantu said she hasn’t appeared before an immigration judge.
Last year, the Trump administration announced Homeland Security’s efforts to terminate the Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan parole programs.
With Nicolás Maduro’s capture on Jan. 3, the flow of oil from Venezuela to Cuba stopped. There are power outages, water service disruptions, and shortages of basics on the communist island.
Alcantu and DeMario fear that the Trump administration will deport her to the communist island in crisis. DeMario said he is overwhelmed. Without Alcantu being able to work, DeMario said he is worried about the new attorney’s fees and detention facility costs.
“She is my fiancé. She is the love of my life. She is my best friend,” DeMario wrote on his GoFundMe fundraising page. “We live together and I want to continue living with her for the rest of our lives.”
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