Venezuelan journalist detained by federal immigration agents in Florida

Wilmer Solano Dávila, a Venezuelan journalist, was taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection during a traffic stop in Miami Beach, Florida, on July 26, 2026.

Solano entered the United States legally on a journalist visa in January 2015 and applied for asylum later that year, El Nuevo Herald reported. He had a valid work permit and driver’s license, a pending asylum case and an immigration court hearing scheduled for Aug. 26, according to El Nuevo Herald and an Instagram post by fellow Venezuelan journalist Sergio Novelli.

Solano’s wife, Maria Moreno, described the arrest in a GoFundMe post, writing that her husband “was taken into custody without a warrant or any criminal charges. He has no criminal record, has lived in the United States for almost 12 years, and has a pending asylum case.”

In a statement to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed Solano had been taken into custody and said he lacked a legal status that would permit him to remain in the U.S.

“To be clear, work authorization or a pending application do NOT confer legal status in the United States,” a DHS spokesperson wrote, adding that Solano would receive due process while in removal proceedings and encouraging undocumented immigrants to voluntarily leave the country.

According to El Nuevo Herald, Solano held temporary protected status from 2021 until September 2025, when the Trump administration ended the designation for Venezuelans.

Before leaving Venezuela, Solano worked as a political reporter for the television network Globovisión from 2002 to 2008, according to Novelli. He later founded and directed Zorro Comunicaciones, where he covered political campaigns and provided communications and consulting services until April 2023, the Columbia Journalism Review reported.

Solano has previously faced violence and retaliation for his reporting in Venezuela. In 2011, Solano and a cameraman were attacked by supporters of then-President Hugo Chávez, according to Instituto Prensa y Sociedad de Venezuela, a Venezuela-based organization that promotes freedom of expression. The assailants destroyed their camera.

Solano does not appear to have been working as a journalist at the time of his arrest, and his wife did not respond to a Tracker request for comment.

Solano is at least the fourth journalist — and third Latino journalist — detained by federal immigration authorities since the start of President Donald Trump’s second administration.

In 2025, Mario Guevara was deported after being detained by immigration officials while covering a protest in Georgia. Estefany Rodríguez was arrested earlier this year, after reporting on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid for Nashville Noticias in Tennessee.