Trump Voter Regrets Vote After Cuban Partner Is Deported: 'If I Had Voted Democrat, I Wouldn't Have Lost My Wife'

A Florida small-business owner who voted for Donald Trump in 2024 says the decision cost him the woman he calls his wife, and that he will never vote Republican again, after his Cuban partner of two decades was deported to Mexico.

Wayne DeMario, who runs a guitar shop in Cutler Bay, near Miami, blames the immigration crackdown he once supported for the loss of his partner, Yamile Alcantu. 'If I had voted Democrat, I wouldn't have lost my wife,' he said in an interview this month, adding that the American Dream he believed in had become 'an American nightmare'.

Alcantu arrived in the United States from Cuba about 25 years ago through the State Department's visa lottery. Over the years, she learned English, worked, paid taxes, and built a life in South Florida with DeMario, her fiancé.

Her immigration troubles date to 2008, when police found three Xanax pills in her bag during a traffic stop, according to DeMario. She later became subject to a deportation order. Her record also included other misdemeanour offences dating to the early 2000s. Even so, she attended annual check-ins with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for years without incident.

A Routine Check-In Turns Into Detention

That changed in June 2025, when she went to a routine ICE appointment and was detained on the spot. 'They grabbed her, put her in shackles and chains,' DeMario said, calling it a kidnapping.

She was taken to a detention centre in Jacksonville, then to Louisiana, where she was held for months without appearing before an immigration judge during her latest detention, according to DeMario. The Department of Homeland Security listed her among what it calls the 'worst of the worst' over the decades-old drug offence, a label he rejects given the age of the case.

DeMario also described what he said was a mistaken deportation notice in February 2026. Guards allegedly told Alcantu to pack for removal that night without saying where she would be sent. Her name then disappeared from the detention tracking system, leaving him unable to locate her or send money. The following morning, he said, staff explained that it had been an administrative error.

Months earlier, he had appealed to the president. 'Please get her home,' he said in a tearful interview, describing Alcantu as a gentle woman who had prayed for Trump.

From Trump Supporter to Critic

DeMario once trusted the president's promises. 'I didn't vote for this, but I definitely voted Republican,' he said, writing on Facebook that he is 'no Trump supporter' and will never vote for the party again.

He had expected enforcement aimed at dangerous criminals. 'I really thought this was just going to be something more organized, but it's obviously not,' he said.

His anger has widened beyond his own case. He said he now sees racism in the treatment of his Latino and Cuban friends, some deported over incidents from two decades ago, and that people in his heavily Hispanic district feel they are suffering.

That disillusionment, he said, crosses party lines. Republicans, Democrats, and independents all tell him the same thing: this is not what they voted for.

The fight to prevent Alcantu's deportation also took a financial toll. DeMario launched a GoFundMe campaign on 10 June 2025 to cover legal fees and expenses during her detention. He said he had spent his life savings while keeping his store, Wayne's Guitar World, open. The campaign has raised more than $18,600 toward its $30,000 goal.

Part of a Wider Deportation Push

After more than a year in ICE detention, Alcantu was deported to Mexico, rather than Cuba as the couple had feared, according to an October 9 report by CiberCuba citing a Reuters interview with DeMario.

The deportation comes amid a broader Trump administration effort to remove migrants who have lived in the United States for decades, including Cuban nationals with longstanding ties to American communities.

Cubans have long had a pathway to permanent US residency under the Cuban Adjustment Act, although eligibility depends on individual immigration circumstances, and criminal convictions can complicate applications.

Human Rights Watch reported in May 2026 that US authorities had deported 12,977 non-Mexican nationals to Mexico between 20 January 2025 and 9 March 2026. Cubans were the largest group, accounting for 4,353 deportations.

The organisation also cited a court filing in which US government lawyers said approximately 6,000 Cubans had been removed to Mexico over the preceding year. Many Cuban deportees face legal uncertainty in Mexico, where they can struggle to secure housing, employment and healthcare.