Alleged Cuban influence operative, family in federal custody after Rubio revokes legal status
Three Cuban nationals, including a man the Trump administration says spent more than a decade working for a Cuban government influence organization in the United States, were apprehended by federal agents this week after Secretary of State Marco Rubio terminated their legal status.
The State Department announced Wednesday that Carlos Antonio Lloga Dominguez, along with his wife and son, are in federal custody pending removal from the U.S.
Lloga Dominguez spent more than a decade as a "foreign subversive" employed by the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the People (ICAP), the communist Cuban regime’s "premier influence and intelligence front group in the United States," according to the State Department. He is accused of continuing to maintain ties to the transnational communist subversion network throughout his time residing in the U.S.
"This is America First leadership in our region," a senior State Department official told Fox News Digital of the apprehensions.
FEDS INVESTIGATE NONPROFITS AND LEADERS ALLEGEDLY COORDINATING WITH CUBA IN INFLUENCE CAMPAIGN
ICAP was sanctioned earlier this month. The group has denied any wrongdoing and says it's a civil society organization.
The State Department maintains that ICAP "maintains an outsized footprint across the United States, trafficking in vile anti-American propaganda, cultivating pro-Havana regime activists and politicians, and lobbying federal, state and local politicians on behalf of the Cuban dictatorship."
ICAP, which was founded in Fidel Castro in 1960 to spread Marxism all over the world, was accused of working with far-left groups in America to "export Cuba’s Communist revolution to the United States."
The State Department describes ICAP as the "the central node in a sprawling Cuban intelligence and influence operation, claiming to span more than 2,000 organizations across more than 150 countries."
The sanctions against ICAP, enacted by Rubio, froze all its U.S.-based assets and generally banned Americans from doing business with the organization.
"America will never become home for foreign communists who peddle propaganda, run subversive influence operations, or support radical anti-American movements within the United States," Rubio said in a statement on social media. "Transact with ICAP and you will be sanctioned, prosecuted or deported from our country."
A Fox News Digital investigation found that over the last decade, ICAP officials have closely coordinated with American nonprofits to support the Communist Party of Cuba.
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These nonprofits — many of them funded by businessman and far-left activist Neville Roy Singham — include the People's Forum, Breakthrough News, Tricontinental, CodePink, the ANSWER Coalition and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
Altogether, there are 145 nonprofits, labor groups, advocacy organizations and activist collectives across the U.S. that are mobilizing in support of the Cuban government, Fox News Digital reported. The organizations report about $1 billion in combined revenue.
The DOJ and the Treasury Department is investigating this alleged influence campaign.
CodePink, founded by Jodie Evans, Singham's wife, led a convoy to Cuba earlier this year to deliver aid to the country. The trip came after President Donald Trump imposed an oil blockade on Cuba earlier this year.
The convoy has since attracted federal scrutiny, with CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin confirming she received questions from federal officials who were investigating whether she violated American sanctions on Cuba.
Fox News Digital's Danielle Wallace and Asra Nomani contributed to this report.