Cuban man who lived in Miami describes nightmare in Central African Republic after ICE, traffic stop

MIAMI — Through tears, Yasmany Moreno described how he went from living in Miami with his family to being trapped in the Central African Republic about a year later.

The Details

Moreno, 32, said he left his native Cuba in a raft in 2016. After moving to Miami, he worked at food processing centers and in a trucking business.

After about nine years in Miami, Moreno said there was a traffic stop. He was in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s custody when he was forced to board a plane.

“Africa? I was, like, in shock,” Moreno said in Spanish about learning mid-flight that his destination was across the Atlantic.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said Moreno had a record of five traffic offenses, including driving with a suspended license.

“Third country removals are an essential public safety tool that remove the most dangerous criminal illegal aliens from our streets,” the DHS spokesperson also said in a statement.

The U.S. State Department issued a “Do Not Travel” advisory for the Central African Republic, citing the “risk of unrest, crime, kidnapping, landmines, health, and terrorism.”

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