WILTON MANORS, Fla. — Yariel Valdés González began his new life in freedom in this country a year ago today. Yariel, who asked for asylum in the U.S.
because of the persecution he suffered in Cuba as a journalist, spent nearly a year in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody until his release from the River Correctional Center, a privately-run detention center in Louisiana’s rural Concordia Parish, on March 4, 2020.
The details of that day remain vivid: The torrential downpour that drenched us as we ran to my car in the detention center’s parking lot, the Lady Gaga songs I played on my iPhone as we drove away, my left arm that I fractured a few hours earlier and dancing at Oz on Bourbon Street once we arrived in New Orleans.