He was a journalist persecuted in Venezuela. ICE detained him in Florida

A Venezuelan journalist living in Florida recently spent nearly two weeks in federal immigration custody, highlighting the Trump administration’s widening immigration enforcement net.

On Oct. 12, the Florida Highway Patrol in Gainesville pulled over Gustavo Giménez Sánchez, a political-asylum seeker whom federal officials had interviewed 12 days prior to his detention to determine whether to grant him refugee status, which remains pending. FHP did not respond to repeated Miami Herald requests for the incident report on the stop, although the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office confirmed it was FHP that carried out the arrest.

Giménez Sánchez, 42, who lives in Gainesville, told the Herald he had just finished delivering food orders when troopers stopped him. An FHP trooper pulled him over and asked him where he was from. When he said Venezuela, the trooper asked for his license and car registration, which he said he provided. The trooper went back to his colleagues for a few minutes, then came back to arrest him. Once in custody, the troopers told him he was being detained because he had a pending issue with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Giménez Sánchez said.

Government records show that Giménez Sánchez entered the U.S. on a tourist visa in July 2023 and received Temporary Protected Status in October 2023. He applied for asylum before his TPS expired in April. The Herald could not find any criminal records for Giménez Sánchez, who also said he did not have any arrests or convictions.

Giménez Sánchez’s case highlights how immigrants who were previously not priorities for detention and deportation — like an asylum seeker without a criminal record who flew into the U.S. on a visa — are now potential targets under the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts.

It also underscores the precarious nature of seeking asylum in the U.S., particularly for individuals fleeing oppressive regimes, for whom refuge in the U.S. is a lifeline. More than 300,000 Venezuelans have applied for asylum in the U.S. since 2021, according to data from the Office of Homeland Security Statistics. Millions of Venezuelans have fled a humanitarian and economic crisis exacerbated by political repression. It’s the largest non-war-related exodus worldwide. Yet many Venezuelans are facing significant hurdles when seeking asylum in the United States and elsewhere.

Giménez Sánchez was held in the Alachua County Jail for two nights before going into ICE custody on Oct. 13. In a statement to the Herald, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, told the Herald that “having an application pending does not grant you any lawful status.”

McLaughlin said Giménez Sánchez was in the U.S. illegally and emphasized that his deportation protections under TPS had expired. The Trump administration revoked the deportation protections for over half-a million Venezuelans earlier this year.

“TPS was never intended to be a de facto amnesty program, yet that’s how previous administrations have used it for decades. The Trump administration is restoring integrity to our immigration system to keep our homeland and its people safe. We have the law, the facts, and common sense on our side,” said McLaughlin.

Asylum seekers are authorized to be in the United States while their cases are ongoing. They are also generally protected from deportation until a decision is made on their case. However, having a pending case does not confer immigration status and the government can detain an asylum seeker.

Experts note that under Trump, what has changed is not the law but the government’s approach. A South Florida lawyer told the Miami Herald she has received calls in recent days about immigrants authorized to be in the U.S. with ongoing processes, like asylum seekers, being detained during routine traffic stops. Under previous administrations, asylum seekers were generally not detained unless they were recent arrivals, had a criminal record or were considered a public safety threat.

‘I feel like I am back in Venezuela’

Giménez Sánchez’s parents and siblings are American citizens, and he frequently visited them during summer trips. During a trip to the U.S. in 2023, he qualified for TPS under a Biden administration expansion of the program. His wife and daughters were already in the country because Giménez Sánchez’s sister had sponsored them under now-defunct humanitarian parole processes for Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua.

“I’m scared. I feel like I’m back in Venezuela,” Giménez Sánchez’s wife told the Herald after her husband was detained. She asked that she not be named because of her own pending asylum application. The family of four is facing significant legal hurdles. Giménez Sánchez’s wife and two daughters had their previous legal status terminated under the Trump administration too. “We’re in the crosshairs. Anyone can come for you just because of who you are, how you look, how you speak.”

Facing the imminent expiration of TPS, Giménez Sánchez applied for asylum in April 2025. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services acknowledged he had filed his application before his TPS ended and he was interviewed for his asylum application only days before his arrest.

Giménez Sánchez said he had long been a target of violence from pro-government groups in Venezuela. In 2010, while covering an event in Lara, a western state that has long been a government stronghold, he and several fellow journalists were ambushed by a mob of militants loyal to the regime. The group attacked the reporters, furious over their critical coverage of government policies. The Herald spoke to a journalist in the group who also fled Venezuela due to violence, and watched a video from the attack where Giménez Sánchez and several other TV journalists were beaten during the assault.

In his asylum application, reviewed by the Herald, Giménez Sánchez said he had been the victim of physical assaults and various threats due to his profession as a journalist. He claimed that the attacks were either carried out by Venezuelan state security agencies or orchestrated by groups with ties to the Venezuelan government.

According to his application, the assaults occurred between 2010 and 2023. Giménez Sánchez said the incidents were a direct result of his continuous reporting on the irregularities and violations of civil and human rights in Venezuela.

“The Venezuela we have today, after everything that’s been happening, is marked by persecution, repression, and arbitrary detentions,” Giménez Sánchez said. “How many fellow journalists are still imprisoned, tortured, and held in places no one even knows about?”

Last week, Giménez Sanchez had an immigration hearing to argue for his release. An immigration judge granted him bond, and he was freed from ICE custody. He is awaiting a decision about whether he will be granted asylum and be able to build a life in the U.S. with his family.

“We always wanted to be in the United States because my whole family is here,” he said. “And I have no reason to keep risking myself back home.”

This story was originally published November 7, 2025 at 5:13 PM.