Roberto Mosquera, a 59-year-old Cuban national, has been held at Eswatini’s Matsapha Correctional Complex for more than 14 months after the United States transferred him there. His attorney says Mosquera has not been charged with a crime in Eswatini, and his family has no clear timetable for his release, according to The Associated Press.
The legal dispute
The dispute raises questions about the duration of U.S. immigration detention when a person is subject to a final removal order but cannot be returned to the home country. Under the Supreme Court’s 2001 decision in Zadvydas v. Davis, detention generally cannot continue beyond six months when removal to the home country or another willing country is not reasonably foreseeable, according to FindLaw. A federal judge in Massachusetts ruled in March 2026 that people sent to third countries must receive advance notice and a meaningful opportunity to raise fear-based claims before removal, Altman & An LLP reported.
Eswatini courts have also addressed access to legal representation. In April 2026, one court ruled that prison officials had unlawfully prevented four deportees at Matsapha from meeting local defense lawyers for nine months, according to AP News. That ruling created a separate local challenge involving the men’s ability to contest their confinement.
The transfer to Eswatini
What the broader removal data shows
The available DHS background does not quantify how often the United States removes noncitizens to countries other than their countries of citizenship or identify a specific policy governing those transfers. It does report that repatriating significant numbers of people to some Eastern Hemisphere countries has generally been difficult because of challenges obtaining travel documents and the expense of large charter flights, according to the DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics.
ICE detained Mosquera in Miramar, Florida, on June 13, 2025, during a required check-in under his existing removal order, according to Local 10 News. His relatives initially expected him to be returned to Cuba and later learned through social media that he had been sent to Eswatini, Arab News also reported. The Trump administration has said Cuba would not accept him back, according to Local 10.
The transfer followed a May 2025 agreement under which the United States agreed to pay Eswatini $5.1 million to accept as many as 160 people removed from the United States, according to Mother Jones. Mosquera arrived on July 15, 2025, with four other noncitizens from Cuba, Jamaica, Laos, Vietnam and Yemen, the publication reported. The group was held at Matsapha rather than returned directly to its members’ home countries.
Contact with his family
Mosquera had lived in South Florida since arriving from Cuba as a child and had served a U.S. sentence for attempted murder, according to Local 10. His lawyer says he completed that sentence and is now being held in Eswatini without having been charged with an offense there.
Mosquera later staged a 30-day hunger strike over his confinement, according to Local 10 and CBS News. He subsequently received a phone that allowed him to speak with relatives. His family’s contact with him remains limited, and his attorney says the detention has no defined end date.
The Department of Homeland Security told Local 10 that the government is carrying out President Trump’s deportation policy within the law and that ICE no longer bears responsibility once a person is outside its custody. Mosquera’s relatives in Homestead continue to seek information about his status and whether he will return to the United States.
