Exiled Nicaraguan Journalist Detained in Florida After Seven Years in the U.S.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained exiled Nicaraguan journalist Luis Galeano on the morning of Sept. 14 in Orlando, Florida. Agents stopped him while he was driving for his second job with Lyft, according to his wife Daykel Santamaría. As of Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026, he was held at the Krome detention center in Miami. His next immigration court date is Oct. 2. The Guardian
The stop ended seven years living in the U.S. while his protection claim was pending. Havana Times Galeano fled Nicaragua in December 2018, days after police raided 100% Noticias where he worked and ordered his arrest. He arrived in Miami soon after and sought asylum — legal protection for people who fear persecution — Santamaría said. That case had waited about seven years as of September 2026. He holds a work permit and a Social Security number.
Galeano is one of at least 94 Nicaraguans stripped of citizenship by the Ortega-Murillo government for opposing it. That denaturalization order, a decision to take away nationality, also named novelist Sergio Ramírez and writer Gioconda Belli. After arriving in the United States in 2018, he kept reporting on the Sandinista government through Café con voz. He is the director of its interview program, Café con Voz.
Press advocates and lawmakers answered within a day. The Committee to Protect Journalists called on ICE to release Galeano on Sept. 15. Committee to Protect Journalists The House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing on ‘Confronting the Totalitarian Ortega-Murillo Regime’ on Tuesday, Sept. 15. After the detention, Rep. María Elvira Salazar said, “America must always know the difference between a criminal and a political exile.”
The broader context here is the clash between loss of citizenship and detention. A dissident stripped of Nicaraguan citizenship has no such citizenship to return to. It is like canceling a passport and then asking where to send the holder. Detention does not solve that. The working questions are procedural. What travel document fits. What removal can be carried out. What protection covers an asylum case from 2018 with work authorization.
Looking at what this means for Washington, timing sharpens the choice. The detention came one day before a House hearing on the Ortega-Murillo government, and Salazar’s line between criminal enforcement and political exile frames the decision ahead. The Oct. 2 court date is the next decision point. Whether Galeano pursues his case from inside Krome or outside will shape his reporting and the signal to exiled Nicaraguan journalists in Miami who kept covering Managua after losing nationality at home.
