A small business owner in Miami-Dade County, Florida, who voted for President Donald Trump says he will never vote Republican again after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained his Cuban fiancée. This incident has become a personal condemnation of the administration’s immigration policies.
Wayne DeMario, owner of Wayne’s Guitar World, told Local 10 News and others that his partner of 20 years, Yamile Alcantu, was detained in June during a routine annual appointment with ICE. This was a process she had followed for decades. After her detention, she was transferred to a facility in Louisiana. Alcantu has lived in the United States legally for 25 years after coming through the visa lottery program. However, she had a 2008 deportation order due to three prescription pills found in her purse during a traffic stop, according to DeMario.
“It has been eight months since ICE detained Yamile Alcantu, and her partner has been in a lot of pain,” Local 10 News reported. “They grabbed her, put her in shackles and chains,” DeMario said.
DeMario noted he and Alcantu never expected her immigration status to become an issue, especially after years of working with authorities. “I really thought this was just going to be something more organized, but it’s obviously not,” he told the news outlet. “They just blanket everybody.”
Both DeMario and Alcantu supported Trump. DeMario believed the administration would focus its immigration enforcement on serious criminals and that Alcantu’s situation wouldn’t lead to her detention. “I didn’t vote for this, but I definitely voted Republican,” he stated in social media posts. “And I will never f—ing vote Republican again.”
In public online posts, DeMario criticized the Republican Party for policies that affected his partner, even with her long history of complying with immigration rules. “I am pissed at this whole administration, and all of government. I voted Republican, but so did millions of other people, and what was the alternative?” he wrote.
In 2025, DeMario started a GoFundMe campaign to help with legal fees and expenses related to Alcantu’s detention. He described the financial burden on the couple as growing. In the fundraising description, he referred to Alcantu as “the love of my life” and expressed his desire to bring her home safely.
From the detention facility in Louisiana, DeMario mentioned that Alcantu had not seen an immigration judge more than eight months after her detention. He and supporters fear she could be deported to Cuba, a country facing significant economic and humanitarian difficulties, which adds to their distress.
The Trump administration did not respond immediately to requests for comment about this case. Federal officials have defended ICE’s actions as necessary to enforce immigration laws, stating that those with deportation orders are priorities for removal.
DeMario said the emotional, financial, and social impact of the detention has changed how he views the party he once supported and the consequences of his voting choices. In interviews and posts, he has repeatedly urged President Trump to intervene. “Please get her home,” he wrote in a GoFundMe update.
