Degnis Bofill, a Latin Grammy-winning percussionist and composer based in Miami, was held by ICE authorities at Miami International Airport after returning from a performance in New York. His wife, Mara Delgado, claims he was briefly allowed to call her before being pushed through processing, and a GoFundMe campaign she created to support his legal bills has already raised more than $45,000 from over 500 donors in just two days.
According to the Miami New Times, Bofill had recently performed at the Pocket Jazz Club in Midtown Manhattan when he was apprehended upon returning to Miami. An ICE spokeswoman confirmed the detention and stated that Bofill had not followed the requirements of his 2023 entrance to the United States. According to the same statement shared by the source, ICE will continue to locate, arrest, and remove anyone who break US law, and it encourages possible targets to leave the country peacefully.
Delgado told the newspaper that her husband has an open asylum petition, and she also stated that he entered the United States legally on a visa in 2023, according to a Facebook post quoted by CiberCuba. She described it as a terrible tragedy for Miami’s Cuban music scene. ICE relocated Bofill from a transitional hold in Miramar to the Krome North Service Processing Center, a place Hoodline has previously covered amid oversight concerns.
According to Delgado’s Facebook account, which CiberCuba quoted, Bofill did not appear in ICE’s online detainee locator or immigration court databases for several days following his detention on August 19. This gap reportedly precluded attorneys from officially taking his case until a destination prison center was assigned. Due to the delay, no one was able to file appearances or initiate bail procedures during those critical early days.
Bofill was born in Manzanillo, Cuba, in 1987, and started learning music at the age of nine. He attended Conservatorio José María Ochoa in Holguín for three years, specializing in symphonic and popular percussion, and graduated in 2006. He then taught at a nearby music school for three years, arriving at 6 a.m. to reserve the school’s only xylophone or timpani, according to Miami New Times.
According to Voyage MIA Magazine, Bofill has toured dozens of countries, recorded over 28 albums, and shared the stage with artists such as Blondie, Arturo O’Farrill, Roberto Fonseca, and Omara Portuondo. He founded the Afro-Cuban jazz and world music group Golpes Libres, attended the Latin Alternative Music Conference, and organizes workshops and events for his community, according to the outlet. In January 2025, he became an official voting member of the Latin Recording Academy, adding to two JoJazz honors he received in Cuba in 2016 for interpretation and composition.
His most notable contribution was as a percussionist and vocalist on Síntesis’ 2022 album Ancestros Sinfónico, a symphonic reinterpretation of the group’s 1987 landmark. X Alfonso’s Ancestros album, featuring Afro-Cuban Santería chanting and a full orchestra, won Best Folk Album at the 23rd Annual Latin Grammy Awards, as reported by Radio COCO. Bofill was also chosen as a fellow for OneBeat, a musical exchange program administered by the US State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs that brings international musicians to the United States for collaborative residencies, according to OneBeat.
Bofill’s detention came only days after musician Andy García Palacios was seized by ICE agents at Los Angeles International Airport on August 15 and sent to the Adelanto Processing Center. ICE claimed his stay authorization had expired in May 2024. According to Diario Las Américas, García Palacios’ legal team maintained that he entered legitimately, had an ongoing immigration process, and no criminal record. Chucho Valdés, an iconic Cuban jazz pianist, publicly expressed his sadness at the two arrests and requested federal officials to quickly address both musicians’ visa statuses so they could resume their careers, according to CiberCuba.
The arrests were part of a recorded uptick in enforcement: ICE arrests of Cuban nationals increased 463% between late 2024 and early 2026, owing primarily to agents arresting travelers at airport check-in desks and boarding gates, Diario Las Américas reported. Between October 2025 and June 2026, Florida immigration courts issued 4,007 deportation orders against Cuban citizens, according to Syracuse University TRAC data cited by the outlet, while Department of Homeland Security figures show more than 42,000 Cubans nationwide remain under final deportation orders, with over 4,883 already deported since January 2025, according to CubaHeadlines. Hoodline has previously reported on related enforcement tendencies, such as a South Florida Cuban who was told to self-deport and a 75-year-old Cuban national who died while in ICE detention.
For the time being, Bofill remains at Krome while his asylum case and the circumstances of his 2023 admission are resolved, with ICE claiming he violated the terms and his family and supporters citing his pending asylum application, lack of a criminal record, and status as a State Department cultural fellow and Grammy-winning artist. Delgado’s GoFundMe effort is growing as friends and admirers rally behind him.
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