ICE Detains Exiled Nicaraguan Journalist Luis Galeano in Florida

United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained Luis Galeano, an exiled Nicaraguan journalist, in Florida on Monday morning. Galeano was working as a Lyft driver at the time of his arrest. He is currently held at the Krome detention center in Miami with a court date set for October 2.

Galeano fled Nicaragua in 2018 following a police raid on his employer, 100% Noticias. He has a work permit and social security number, and his asylum application has been pending for approximately seven years. He is one of at least 94 Nicaraguans stripped of their citizenship by the Ortega-Murillo regime for opposing the government.

The detention has drawn condemnation from the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Inter American Press Association, and Florida Representatives María Elvira Salazar and Mario Díaz-Balart. Critics pointed to the timing of the arrest, which coincided with a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing denouncing the totalitarian nature of the Nicaraguan regime, to highlight contradictions in the Trump administration's handling of political exiles and asylum due process.