Rogelio Enrique Bolufé Izquierdo
Biography
Rogelio Enrique Bolufé Izquierdo, a Cuban and Ecuadorian national living in Florida, entered ICE custody on August 18, 2025 after a Florida drug-possession arrest; that criminal charge was later dropped. ICE held him for nearly ten months and transferred him through detention sites in Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Alabama, Arizona, and Washington. While detained, Bolufé filed legal challenges, protested detention conditions, organized hunger strikes, and helped organize the Unión de Secuestrados por ICE. He and advocates described the repeated transfers as retaliation for those activities. On June 1, 2026, while an immigration appeal remained pending, the United States deported him to Guayaquil, Ecuador. ICE did not confirm that the deportation was connected to his organizing.
Sources
- U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico — August 18, 2025 ICE custody and immigration proceedings
- Source New Mexico — hunger strike, detainee organizing, transfers, and dropped Florida charge
- The American Prospect — detainee union and reported retaliation culminating in deportation
- Martí Noticias — full name and June 1, 2026 deportation date
- Telemundo 51 — Bolufé’s account of the June 1 deportation to Ecuador
Portrait provenance
The photograph is explicitly captioned Rogelio Bolufe in the August 12, 2026 NOTUS interview about his detention and deportation. Credit: Jose Pagliery / NOTUS. Original image pixels cropped to the individually identified subject, removing excess cityscape while retaining his full head, hair, face and upper body. No enlargement, retouching, or generated detail. No unverified personal-account photograph was used.
