Venezuelan journalist Wilmer Roberto Solano Dávila was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection while working in Miami Beach, Fla., on Sunday.In a statement provided to The Times on Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that the journalist was detained over the weekend.“On July 26, U.S. Border Patrol arrested Wilmer Roberto Solano-Davila, an illegal alien from Venezuela,” a DHS spokesperson said. “Solano-Davila has no status that would allow him to remain in the United States. He will receive full due process and remain in custody pending the outcome of his removal proceedings. To be clear, work authorization or a pending application do NOT confer legal status in the United States.”Sergio Novelli, a fellow Venezuelan journalist based in the Miami area, reported in a Monday Instagram post that Solano had been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.According to Novelli, Solano was in the asylum process and possessed a valid Florida work permit and driver’s license. He added that the detained reporter entered the U.S. legally in 2015 and no criminal record in either Venezuela or the U.S.Solano’s relatives told Miami news outlet El Nuevo Herald that the journalist was arrested during a traffic stop, in which he had not committed any traffic violations and presented proper documentation.A friend of Solano told El Nuevo Herald the reporter was detained around 4 p.m. Sunday and was currently being held at a local CBP headquarters, but that he would soon be transferred to the Krome ICE center in Miami-Dade County. He also alleged that Solano had an immigration court hearing scheduled for Aug. 26.Solano’s current location is not available through ICE’s detainee locator website, which also locates people who have been in CBP custody for 48 hours or more.El Nuevo Herald confirmed that Solano had entered the U.S. in January 2015 with a journalist visa and applied for asylum in December 2015 after being persecuted by politician in his native Venezuela. He also had Temporary Protected Status beginning in 2021, but it expired in September 2025. In 2025, the Trump administration terminated TPS for 600,000 Venezuelans, making them now all eligible for removal from the country. The 59-year-old journalist served as a politics reporter for the Venezuelan TV news network Globovisión from 2002 to 2008. He covered national political campaigns for the agency Zorro Comunicaciones CA, which he owned and where he served as director of news.Solano is at least the third Latino journalist detained by federal officials since the onset of the second Trump administration. Colombian journalist Estefany Rodriguez was arrested by ICE agents in Nashville in March. Rodriguez, who works for the local news network Nashville Noticias and Univision 42 Nashville, was detained during a traffic stop outside of a gym while with her husband. A DHS officials said she was arrested because her tourist visa had expired in September 2021. She came to the U.S. five years ago with a valid work permit and is married to a U.S. citizen. Rodriguez was released after spending 16 days in federal detention.In 2025, Salvadoran journalist Mario Guevara was detained by ICE agents as he was reporting on a “No Kings” protest on June 14 in the Atlanta area. The reporter filmed his own arrest because he was livestreaming. Following his arrest, Guevara was deported back to El Salvador.Last year, a total of 32 journalists were arrested or detained in the U.S., according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Most of the incidents occurred while reporters were covering immigration-related protests.
