Urgent Action - USA: Release Cuban asylum seeker with diabetes

On 26 November 2025, Denis Cabrera Rodríguez, a Cuban man seeking asylum, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He is currently detained at Krome North Service Processing Center in Florida. Denis lives with Type 1 Diabetes and is dependent on an insulin pump. ICE is refusing to allow him to have his insulin pump in detention, depriving him of proper medical care. His health is rapidly deteriorating. Demand Denis’ immediate release from detention and until that happens, ensure that authorities provide him with adequate healthcare to prevent further health deterioration and possible death.

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Dear Field Office Director Kelei Walker, On 26 November 2025, Denis Cabrera Rodríguez (A#: 241-909-042), a Cuban citizen seeking political asylum in the United States, was detained despite having a pending asylum claim. Denis is an artist and human rights activist linked to artistic movements such as the San Isidro and 27N movements. In Cuba, he was censored, arbitrarily detained, tortured, and forcibly disappeared for his work and activism. After being arrested, he was taken to the ICE-ERO Center Miramar where he fainted and had to be taken to Memorial Miramar Hospital because he was at risk of suffering heart attack. After three days, ICE took him to the Krome North Service Processing Center. Denis was diagnosed with diabetes at ten years old. According to his family, prior to his detention, he relied on an insulin pump to manage his blood sugar and administer insulin when needed. Since his transfer to Krome, Denis has not received adequate glucose monitoring, insulin, or food which have dramatically impacted his health. ICE is not permitting him to have his insulin pump while in detention. Amnesty International has received information that Denis is now experiencing complications that require urgent and consistent medical care that he can only adequately receive outside of detention. Without proper care Denis is at risk of serious medical complications resulting from his underlying chronic illness, including amputation of limbs, falling into a coma, and death. Denis should have never been detained as authorities cannot lawfully return him to Cuba. Moreover, the dangerous and inadequate conditions at Krome have been well documented by numerous organizations that detail the substandard medical care, unsanitary conditions, abuse and mistreatment that has led to preventable deaths in custody. During the 2025 fiscal year thus far, four individuals have died while detained at Krome – Ramesh Amechand, Genry Ruiz Guillen, Maksym Chernyak and Isidro Pérez – raising serious concerns about access to quality healthcare at the facility. Amnesty International considers that the treatment of individuals detained at Krome constitutes cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Denis is in urgent need of medical care, and his condition is worsening every day. I implore you to ensure that Denis is immediately released and provided with the urgent medical care he desperately needs. Sincerely,
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Urgent Action – USA: Release Cuban asylum seeker with diabetes

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