MIAMI — Federal immigration authorities arrested Adys Lastres Morera, the sister of a senior official who leads Cuba’s military-controlled business empire, after Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked her lawful permanent resident status, officials said.
Homeland Security Investigations agents took Lastres Morera into custody in Miami. She will remain in ICE detention pending removal proceedings. Rubio determined she was deportable under Section 237(a)(4)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows the secretary of state to find a foreign national removable if her presence would have “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.”
Lastres Morera entered the United States as a lawful permanent resident on Jan. 13, 2023, during the Biden administration. Officials said she had not applied for citizenship. Rubio said she had been living in Florida and managing real estate assets while, he alleged, also aiding Havana’s communist government.
Her sister, Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, is executive president of Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A., or GAESA, the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces conglomerate that U.S. officials say controls as much as 70 percent of Cuba’s economy. Washington sanctioned the sister and GAESA earlier in May 2026. U.S. officials accuse the group of siphoning tourism revenue, remittances and proceeds from Cuba’s overseas medical missions and of holding as much as $20 billion in illicit funds in overseas accounts. Havana denies those charges and rarely discusses GAESA in public.
“For far too long, the family members of terrorist organizations, repressive anti-American regimes, and other bad actors who would threaten the national security of the United States have been given a free pass to enjoy the privileges of living in the United States,” Rubio said. “Past administrations have permitted the families of Cuban military elites … to enjoy lavish lifestyles in our country funded by stolen blood-money, while the people they repress at home suffer.”
He added that the Trump administration would no longer allow relatives of Cuban regime elites or other designated adversaries to live freely in the United States. “If you threaten the national security of the United States, there will be nowhere on this earth — much less in our country — that you and your cronies can live lavishly,” he said. “We will find you, and we will hold you accountable.”
John Condon, then HSI’s acting executive associate director, said allowing Lastres Morera to remain “would send a signal that Cuban regime-affiliated networks could continue to access the U.S.’s financial, educational and social institutions — but that is not the case.”
Neither Rubio nor ICE announced criminal charges. The arrest came as the administration tightened pressure on Havana, including sanctions on GAESA leadership and a separate Justice Department indictment related to the 1996 shoot-down of civilian aircraft. Lastres Morera remains in ICE custody while deportation proceedings move forward.
