SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — Alex González and Yan Vázquez left Cuba together in 2019 on a path to find a better life in a nation that prides itself as a land of liberty and justice for all. But after spending five months in a immigration detention center after being arrested for a pending legal status, they now feel like living in the U.S. is not too different from the country they fled from.
The couple, who married in 2024, are both hospital workers at Upstate Medical University. They got a home together in North Syracuse, but in October 2025, as they were waiting for a hearing in a courthouse about finalizing their legal residency, federal immigration agents cuffed them and sent them to Mattydale, the local headquarters for I.C.E. just outside of Syracuse. Afterward, they were sent to the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility.
After spending months in a Buffalo jail for having a pending legal status, the couple talked to the press for the first time after being freed on bond.
Photos by Alexandra Deryn.…