Cuban pastor’s son detained by ICE after entering US legally, taking sanctuary
The 19-year-old son of a Cuban Baptist pastor has been held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since June, and advocates fear he could be jailed if deported to Cuba.
Daniel Arcadis Solano Jaume could be sent back to Cuba after a California judge rejected his bid for permanent U.S. residency last week, reports Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), a United Kingdom-based group that documents abuses of religious liberty.
Police stopped Solano Jaume at about 2 a.m. on June 25 in the Kendall area of Miami-Dade County because he was driving without his lights on, his father, the Rev. Arcadis Solano Silvera, said in a statement.
"We are grateful for every prayer, expression of solidarity, and practical act of support," the father, a hospice chaplain who has also served as an adjunct professor with B. H. Carroll Theological Seminary and East Texas Baptist University, said.
"Our hope is that Daniel's situation will be evaluated fairly, that his dignity and health will be protected, and that he will be able to return to his family and continue building his future. Above all, we continue trusting God as our attorneys pursue every appropriate legal avenue."
The pastor, his wife, son and daughter, who is now in the 12th grade, entered the U.S. legally in August 2023. Solano Silvera was a member of the Baptist Convention of Eastern Cuba and led a church in Santiago de Cuba, where the government targeted him for decades. Authorities threatened to destroy or close his church, and a State Security agent assigned to him followed him, harassed him and held him for questioning several times.
In March 2023, officers from Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces came to the family's home to take the boy for military registration. He was 15, two years younger than 17, the minimum age Cuban law sets for compulsory military service.
The next day, the pastor's State Security handler, a lieutenant known by the pseudonym "Anais," sent him repeated text messages.
To protect their son, Solano Silvera and his wife, Yadely Jaume Martin, decided to leave Cuba. The family flew to Jamaica, traveled to the Dominican Republic and reached Mexico in July 2023. They then booked an entry appointment through an online system U.S. Customs and Border Protection was using at the time.
After their appointment in Nogales, Arizona, the parents and their two children entered the U.S. legally on Aug. 30, 2023, during the Biden administration. In September 2024, they applied for permanent residency under the Cuban Adjustment Act, a 1966 law that allows Cubans who have lived in the U.S. for at least a year to seek permanent residency.
In his statement, Solano Silvera said USCIS denied his son's application for permanent residency (Form I-485). The family's lawyer has filed Form I-290B to appeal the decision.
The Christian Post reached out to ICE and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for comment. Responses are pending.
Solano Jaume's next immigration court hearing was scheduled for Wednesday, and his lawyer was expected to ask the court to end the deportation case.
Solano Jaume graduated from Felix Varela Senior High School in Kendall, has worked and filed tax returns since arriving in the U.S., and had hoped to join the U.S. Marine Corps.
His father, a full-time hospice chaplain in Miami, told CSW that the Miami Baptist Association, a Marine sergeant and others wrote letters vouching for his son's character.
The pastor said his son has no criminal record apart from the traffic citation, which is still pending.
CSW reports that Solano Jaume could be jailed or forced into Cuba's armed forces if returned and urged U.S. authorities to let him stay with his family. He spent about 48 hours at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center and was handed over to ICE before his family could post bond.
At an ICE facility in Miramar, Florida, he spent four to five hours in a room he estimated at about 10 feet (3 meters) on each side, with more than 60 other people. He then spent about 10 days at the Krome detention facility in Miami, where he turned 19 on July 20.
Solano Jaume was later moved by bus and plane, in chains, to the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego. His father said the restraints made it hard for him to move and left him badly dehydrated.
In California, Solano Jaume contracted COVID-19 and told his family he did not receive the medicine he needed. His father said his son has kept his Christian faith in custody by praying, sharing Scripture and preaching to fellow detainees.
Anna Lee Stangl, CSW's advocacy director, said she has known the pastor and his wife for more than 20 years and that her organization has documented more than 50 religious freedom violations against him, his relatives and his churches.
"They only took the decision to leave Cuba in order to save their underage child from being forcibly registered for military service with the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces and they were grateful to receive sanctuary in the United States," Stangl said. "Given the circumstances of their flight from Cuba, we have grave concerns about the safety of Daniel Arcadis Solano Jaume, were he to be deported from the United States. We respectfully call on the US government, to reconsider his detention and to permit him to return to his parents and sister."
