Authorities in Florida charged Cuban pilot Luis Raúl González-Pardo with immigration fraud for lying about his past in the Cuban Air Force after arriving in the United States in 2024 under humanitarian parole, despite being implicated in the deaths of four Americans.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida announced Wednesday that Gonzalez-Pardo, 64, faces charges of fraud and misuse of visa, permits and other documents, and making false statements to a federal agency, which could earn him up to 15 years in federal prison.
Luis Raul Gonzalez-Pardo charged with immigration fraud
Luis Raul Gonzalez-Pardo Rodriguez (64) with fraud and misuse of visa, permits, & other documents, & making a false statement to a federal agency. If convicted on all counts, Gonzalez-Pardo Rodriguez faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in federal prison. https://t.co/vEKx3kwdAc pic.twitter.com/jvj3YMESU7
– Miguel Cossio (@cossiom) November 12, 2025
“This man’s past as a longtime military pilot for the evil Castro regime, which has brought untold suffering to the Cuban people, should have been front and center in his immigration file,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.
The pilot, who arrived in April 2024 under former President Joe Biden’s humanitarian parole program (2021-2025), filed “false statements” seven months ago on his Form I-485, to adjust his immigration status, about his membership in the Cuban Air Force from 1980 to 2009, according to the Department of Justice.
The indictment alleges that he “falsely stated that he had never received any military or weapons training, never participated in a group of any kind that used weapons or threatened to use weapons, and never served in a military or police unit, when in fact he received such training and served in the Cuban Army.”
Authorities accompanied the indictment with a photo of the suspect while he was working in the Cuban Air Force.
The controversy erupted in October 2024, when Florida Republican legislators, such as then Senator Marco Rubio, now Secretary of State, sent a letter to the Biden Administration to denounce that the arrival of González-Pardo implied admitting “individuals linked to Cuba’s illegitimate regime”.
The lawmakers charged that the pilot is “notoriously linked” to a 1996 incident in which Cuban MiG-29 jets shot down two planes of the humanitarian organization ‘Brothers to the Rescue,’ resulting in the deaths of four “innocent Cuban-American pilots.”
Current U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the withdrawal of humanitarian parole, a temporary legal protection granted by the Biden Administration to some 532,000 Cubans, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and Haitians.
“This Department of Justice will vigorously pursue anyone who dwells on their past and takes advantage of the U.S. immigration system,” Bondi now warned.
Filed as: Luis Raúl González-Pardo
With information from EFE
