Immigration Attorney Liudmila Marcelo Secures Additional Green Cards for Cubans Using I-220A

Immigration lawyer Liudmila Marcelo recently celebrated significant success by securing two additional permanent residencies for Cuban nationals holding the I-220A form. These victories were achieved in front of a judge in Orlando, bringing her total individual wins to three in 2026 thus far. Remarkably, each case was won using the same legal arguments and before the same magistrate.

Marcelo shared this achievement on Thursday during an interview with Tania Costa, coinciding with the news from a federal hearing in the collective case led by attorney Mark Prada. "But not everything is bad, Tania, not everything is bad," Marcelo remarked, as she recounted the events from the Orlando court session on Tuesday.

Collaborative Efforts in Legal Success

This week’s two green card approvals were the result of a joint effort between Marcelo’s firm and that of Lissette McKinley, an attorney based in Orlando. "It was a collective effort because the case belonged to Lissette McKinley, a personal friend, who asked me to step in for her at the final court session due to her health issues," Marcelo explained.

The judge presiding over the hearing considered arguments from both the defense and prosecution. He granted residency to the Cuban clients using the same rationale applied in a prior case with Marcelo: that the individuals’ release was not a new act of parole, but rather a parole from the outset.

"For him, it's not about granting a parole; it's that their release was under parole," Marcelo clarified. This argument aligns with what Prada is pursuing in his class-action lawsuit: "Not to grant parole to Cubans, but to recognize that their release was indeed a parole."

Legal Challenges and Implications

This legal point is central to the ongoing debate. The I-220A form is a supervised release order issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The federal government argues it does not equate to formal immigration parole and therefore does not allow for status adjustment under the Cuban Adjustment Act. However, several immigration judges in Orlando have accepted the opposing view, resulting in individual victories amid a backdrop of uncertainty affecting hundreds of thousands of Cubans.

"We're still, as we say in good Cuban fashion, in a toss-up," commented a viewer of Marcelo’s weekly program with journalist Tania Costa on CiberCuba, following news that the judge in Prada’s hearing on the I-220A forms declared jurisdiction and scheduled a new session this month.

Broader Impact and Future Steps

Back in May, Marcelo achieved the first residency win for a Cuban with I-220A in Orlando, marking a pioneering victory. In July, the federal government began appealing these individual decisions, as reported by specialized media outlets.

Adding to the legal landscape, on Friday, federal judge Jacqueline Becerra from the Southern District of Florida dismissed the government’s attempt to throw out the collective lawsuit Bello-Rubio v. Noem, filed by 992 Cubans with I-220A. She provided each side seven days to argue whether the case should be certified as a class action, with a new hearing anticipated by the end of September.

Marcelo emphasized that class certification is a critical step: "Everyone across the country, no matter where they are, which state, or under what district, can benefit from this if it's pursued as a class action," she asserted, highlighting the broad potential impact of a favorable ruling if the case progresses as a class action. Advocacy groups estimate between 500,000 and 600,000 Cubans could be affected by the final outcome.

Cases involving Cubans with I-220A continue to progress through U.S. immigration courts. Stay informed about these and other immigration matters in our U.S. Immigration section.