Caymanian’s ICE ordeal going to be ‘the story every American hears’

A Caymanian man released after 150 days in US immigration detention says he wants to use his “traumatic experience” to fight for others still languishing in custody across the country.

Allan Dabrio-Marrero, 34, spoke publicly for the first time since his release at an emotional press conference at Middle Church in Manhattan on Tuesday, flanked by his husband Matthew Marrero, senior New York politicians, legal advocates and his church community.

Supporters held banners reading “Allan is free” and “free them all” in an event that doubled as a campaign against the tactics of US immigration enforcement more generally.

Dabrio-Marrero was joined on stage by US Congressman Dan Goldman, who said his case was going to be “the story every American hears” about the injustices of the country’s immigration system.

Dabrio-Marrero said he was overjoyed to be home but described the psychological and physical toll of months of imprisonment.

“People like myself immigrate here for a safer, better, more humane lives for them and their families.

“Instead, we are detained and treated like animals in cages for months and some even years,” he said.

He described the “nightly terror” of not knowing if his name would be called to be transferred to another detention centre.

“This is where they would chain you by your ankles, connected to your waist, connected to your wrist, for up to eight hours at a time, and can last up to three days not knowing where you were going, all while trying to use the bathroom on a bus or a plane, trying to eat a cold baloney sandwich and a small bottle of water,” he said.

Dabrio-Marrero was shuffled through multiple detention centres including New York, New Jersey, Arizona, Texas, Florida and Natchez, Mississippi during his five months in ICE custody.

He said officers tried to coerce him and others to sign self-deportation orders, telling detainees that it would end the turmoil for their families.

He was finally released last week after the latest appeal from his legal team.
But he said the joy of his homecoming was tempered by the knowledge that many others remained behind bars.

“It’s bittersweet to be out. I pray for all my brothers and sisters that have still been detained and await their release to be reunited with their families and loved ones.”

‘Allan’s story should be heard across America’

US Congressman Goldman, who joined the couple on stage, said Dabrio-Marrero’s story deserved a national audience.

“Allan’s story is going to become the story that every American hears about, how this immigration system is un-American and is failing our country,” he said.

“More than 90% of detained immigrants throughout this country in those for-profit prisons who are being held unlawfully have no serious criminal conviction. They are the vast majority seeking lawful immigration, just like Allan.”

The congressman also referenced Dabrio-Marrero’s original reasons for leaving the Cayman Islands, saying he had come to the United States seeking safety as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

“He came to the United States, the beacon of democracy, for refuge,” Goldman said. Instead, the congressman added, that he and others seeking a better life were treated worse than they ever were back home.

Goldman added that he had introduced legislation to prohibit arrests at immigration check-ins or court appearances, a direct response to the circumstances of Dabrio-Marrero’s detention which followed a routine green card appointment last November.

Lengthy court battle

Dabrio-Marrero’s attorney, Alexandra Rizio, supervising immigration attorney at Make the Road New York, described a lengthy legal battle that culminated in his release only after the organisation filed a federal lawsuit.

She said a judge had granted bond in late January 2026, but ICE refused to process the payment despite the court order. Make the Road filed a complaint in the Eastern District of New York alleging violations of the Administrative Procedures Act. ICE processed the bond only after the suit was filed.

Rizio said the government had paid a for-profit detention company, approximately US$24,750 to keep Dabrio-Marrero detained.

Matthew Marrero, who travelled repeatedly to Mississippi to visit his husband during the detention, said the couple felt “violated and deeply traumatised” but had emerged with a new sense of purpose.

“Love has brought him home, but justice still has work to do,” he said.

Dabrio-Marrero arrived in the United States in 2013 and subsequently married Matthew, a US citizen, entitling him to apply for a green card. That process is ongoing.

The US Department of Homeland Security previously said ICE arrested Allan Michael Dabrio-Marrero, described as “an illegal alien from the Cayman Islands”, on 24 Nov. 2025.

The department said he entered the US on a tourist visa that required him to depart by 8 Sept. 2013, and that after he failed to appear for an immigration hearing, a judge issued a final order of removal in 2022.

“He received full due process,” the department said.