ICE deports alleged Cuban spy from South Florida – NBC 6 South Florida

A Cuban national with Guatemalan citizenship was removed from the United States after a federal investigation determined he concealed alleged ties to the Cuban regime while obtaining lawful permanent resident status, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In a news release, ICE said Fernando Armando Valdés Pérez, 61, was arrested July 10 at Miami International Airport during what the agency described as an administrative immigration enforcement operation involving ICE, the FBI’s Miami field office and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Federal investigators determined that Valdés Pérez was a Cuban intelligence asset tasked with infiltrating and reporting on Cuban exile and dissident communities in Latin America and the United States as early as the mid-1990s, according to ICE.

The agency said Valdés Pérez, of Kendall, gained the trust of late anti-Castro dissident Luis Posada Carriles and maintained close ties to other prominent Cuban and Cuban American figures in South Florida before his arrest.

ICE alleges that Valdés Pérez knowingly concealed his affiliation with the Cuban regime when he applied for and obtained lawful permanent resident status, thereby deceiving U.S. immigration authorities.

“Individuals who conceal ties to foreign intelligence services and exploit our immigration system pose a serious threat to the integrity of that system and to our national security,” ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Miami Field Office Director Matthew Elliston said in a statement. “ICE will continue working with our federal partners to identify, arrest and remove those who obtain immigration benefits through fraud.”

According to the agency, Valdés Pérez was placed in removal proceedings following his arrest and was removed from the United States on August 7, 2026.