Exiled Nicaraguan journalist detained by ICE in Florida. He could be deported

Press-freedom groups and South Florida members of Congress are calling on federal immigration authorities to release exiled Nicaraguan journalist Luis Manuel Chavarría-Galeano after he was detained Monday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Florida.

Read more Exiled Nicaraguan journalist detained by ICE in Florida. He could be deported

His detention is sparking fears that his life would be put in danger if he is deported to Nicaragua under the authoritarian regime of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his wife and co-President Rosario Murillo.

Chavarría-Galeano, 48, was arrested on the morning of Sept. 14 while working as an Uber/Lyft driver in Orlando. He was then transferred to the Baker Correctional Facility in north Florida and later sent to the Krome North Service Processing Center in west Miami-Dade County.

He remains in custody at Krome pending an Oct. 2 immigration hearing, WLRN confirmed late Friday.

His wife, Deykel Santamaría, told El Nuevo Herald, that her husband applied for political asylum in 2019 and that the case remains pending.

“My husband has a very substantial asylum application file and a book of testimonies from a journalist who has been very outspoken against all the policies of the Ortega-Murillo regime,” Santamaría told the Spanish-language newspaper in Miami.

In a statement to El Pais newspaper in Spain, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said ICE agents arrested Chavarría-Galeano “during routine immigration enforcement operations” because he was “unlawfully present in the United States.”

The DHS spokesperson said Chavarría-Galeano entered the U.S. legally on December 21, 2018, and overstayed his visa, which ended on June 20, 2019.

“In violation of our nation’s laws, he remained in the country beyond the authorized period,” the DHS spokesman said. “He will remain in ICE custody while his removal proceedings are processed.”

It’s unclear if Chavarría-Galeano would be deported to Nicaragua or Spain. He also holds Spanish citizenship.

“I am strengthened in faith,” Chavarría-Galeano told Telemundo 31, a Spanish-language station in Orlando late Friday in a brief phone interview.

Speaking in Spanish, he also said he would not wish what he is experiencing at the ICE detention center on anyone.

Press-freedom advocates sound the alarm

Press-freedom organizations have urged federal immigration authorities to immediately release Chavarría-Galeano and review his pending asylum application, saying he would face persecution if returned to Nicaragua.

“This detention fits into a troubling pattern in which the Trump administration has wielded immigration enforcement against members of the press,” said José Zamora, Américas regional director for the Committee to Protect Journalists.

“It is critical that journalists who have sought asylum in the United States after fleeing persecution for their journalistic work are protected, not treated as targets for immigration enforcement,” Zamora said in a statement.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) raised questions about Chavarría-Galeano’s detention, warning that deporting a targeted journalist back to a hostile regime creates a dangerous precedent for political exiles seeking asylum.

In a statement, Edith Rodríguez Cachera, RSF Spain’s vice president, said Spanish government officials “must use every diplomatic and consular instrument at its disposal to safeguard his security and prevent his return to a country where he will likely be targeted due to his journalistic work.”

She said the Spanish government granted citizenship to Chavarría-Galeano in July 2025.

Read more Exiled Nicaraguan journalist detained by ICE in Florida. He could be deported

In a joint statement released Friday, the Miami-based Inter American Press Association, along with 14 other press-freedom organizations, demanded Chavarría-Galeano’s immediate release.. They also pushed for an asylum hearing.

“The U.S. government’s targeting and detention of [Chavarría-Galeano] are a troubling escalation of attacks on journalists and media workers, particularly immigrant journalists, who consistently provide much-needed journalism and civic information for their communities,” the 15 press groups wrote in their statement.

Santamaría, Chavarría-Galeano’s wife, told El Pais: “I fear for his safety, his freedom and his integrity if he were to be sent to Nicaragua. … He could be sent back into the hands of the same regime he fled to protect his life and his freedom.”

South Florida lawmakers: He is a political exile — not a criminal

U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar, R-Miami, urged the Trump administration to “enforce the [immigration] law and deport dangerous individuals, but do not treat political exiles like criminals.”

“Luis is a respected journalist who paid a price for telling the truth about the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship,” she wrote on X. “The regime persecuted him, forced him into exile, and stripped him of his citizenship.”

“That history matters,” she said. “He cannot be sent back into the hands of the people who targeted him.”

U.S. Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, R-Miami, posted on X that he was “deeply troubled” by the detention of Chavarría-Galeano, saying the U.S. “must never lose sight of the difference between criminals and people fleeing political repression.”

Persecuted in Nicaragua for being a journalist

Chavarría-Galeano began work as a journalist in Nicaragua in the late 1990s. In 2012, he established Café con Voz, a prominent political commentary and news program that aired on the independent TV channel 100% Noticias, according to media reports.

In December 2018, following widespread anti-government protests, the Ortega regime launched a sweeping crackdown on independent media. Police raided the offices of 100% Noticias, arresting channel owner Miguel Mora and press director Lucía Pineda.

Chavarría-Galeano narrowly escaped arrest — he was out of the country on vacation at the time. He sought political asylum upon arriving in the United States on December 21, 2018, filing his formal asylum petition in 2019, according to press-freedom groups and Chavarría-Galeano’s wife.

While living in exile, Galeano continued to produce Café con Voz on YouTube and report on human-rights abuses in Nicaragua.

In 2023, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Chavarría-Galeano was among 94 Nicaraguans stripped of their citizenship by the Ortega government, which accused them of being “traitors to the homeland” and ordered the confiscation of their assets.

CPJ staffers said they have documented Nicaragua’s press-freedom crisis, saying 268 Nicaraguan journalists were kicked out of the country into exile, with many living in neighboring Costa Rica.

Under the Ortega-Murillo regime, the government has carried out a sweeping crackdown on dissent following a violent suppression of protests in 2018. Authorities have jailed opposition politicians, religious leaders and others, and also shut down thousands of civil-society organizations.

The congress has repeatedly amended the constitution to concentrate power in Ortega’s hands and eliminate any shred of democratic independence and dissent.

This report was supplemented with information from The Associated Press and produced by Miami Herald news partner WLRN Public Media.

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