HAVANA — Ten times a day for the past two weeks, Heidy Sánchez has made the same two-block trek from her parents’ home in Havana looking for an internet signal to video call her family and sing her daughter to sleep. And every single time she has ended up crying.
Cuban-born Sánchez, 44, was detained in Florida in April during a routine check-in appointment at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, office. Two days later, she was deported to Cuba.
A breastfeeding mother to a 1-year-old and wife of a U.S. citizen, Sánchez is pleading with U.S. President Donald Trump to help her go back and reunite with her family.
“To president (Trump) who has a family, he says he believes in God, and I believe in God too...I would like him to put his hand on his heart and please help us reunite our family," she told The Associated Press. "My baby is little, she needs me.”
Sánchez's story has raised questions among lawyers and activists about the Trump’s administration crackdown against illegal immigration, including who is being deported, the legal basis for people's removal and if the expulsions have followed the proper procedures.
ICE didn’t respond immediately to a request for comment.
The Trump administration has made it a top priority to deport about 1.4 million people who have been ordered by a judge to leave the country, arguing that they have exhausted all avenues to a legal challenge regardless of individual circumstances.
Sánchez broke out in tears several times while looking at family photos of her baby and husband. “I am physically and mentally destroyed," she said. “My world has collapsed and my life is over.”
Sánchez arrived at the southern border of the United States in 2019, among hundreds of thousands of Cuban immigrants. She appeared before a judge once without problems but was late for her second appointment.
By the time Sánchez finally appeared before the judge, he had signed a deportation order for non-compliance. Despite this, she was allowed to stay, although she spent nine months in an immigration detention center.
After her release, Sánchez got her life back on track. She went to school and started working as a nursing assistant.
In 2021, she married Carlos Yuniel Valle, an American citizen and entrepreneur from Tampa, and after two rounds of in vitro fertilization, their daughter Kailyn was born in November 2023.
“We were very happy,” she said.
Meanwhile, in Florida, Sánchez’s 40-year-old husband is grappling with the sudden reality of being a single parent.
He recounted a moment when Kailyn didn't want to sleep and her mom, on a video call, suggested she sing her a song to help put her to bed.
“When she started to sing, the girl began reaching out to touch the screen to caress her mother's face,” he said. “She began to kiss the screen...I started crying and so did her mother.”
Valle is also concerned about his future, missing work to care for their child and fearing he’ll be unable to keep up with his house and car payments.
The family and their lawyers are launching a campaign to collect signatures in support of a humanitarian visa for Sánchez, and Tampa Rep. Kathy Castor has requested her parole from the Trump administration.
