ICE detained former Venezuelan opposition mayor Carlos Garcia-Oden at routine Cincinnati check-in

On January 23, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Carlos Garcia-Oden, a former opposition mayor of Mérida, Venezuela, during a scheduled immigration check-in in Cincinnati, Ohio, and booked him into the Butler County Jail in Hamilton, Ohio. Garcia-Oden's wife, Gaby Duarte, told CNN she watched two plainclothes ICE agents enter the room where he was being questioned and lead him away in handcuffs without explanation. In a statement, ICE confirmed Garcia-Oden was first apprehended crossing the border in February 2022 and later released, and said he "will remain in ICE custody pending further immigration proceedings and will receive full due process."

Garcia-Oden served as mayor of Mérida from 2013 to 2017 as an opponent of then-President Nicolás Maduro's government. Venezuela's Maduro-aligned Supreme Court sentenced him in absentia to 15 months in prison after he declined to clear anti-government protest barricades in his municipality, and he fled to Colombia the night he learned he had been summoned to Caracas. He and his family crossed into the United States in 2022, applied for asylum, and were later granted Temporary Protected Status -- protection the Trump administration revoked for Venezuelan nationals after Maduro's capture and extradition to face U.S. drug-trafficking charges. Garcia-Oden held a work permit valid through 2030 and, his family said, had attended roughly 28 prior ICE check-ins without incident.

Garcia-Oden's family and attorneys said ICE gave no reason for the arrest, and Duarte said she could not understand why her own interview minutes earlier ended without incident while her husband's did not. Local outlets reported that ICE did not respond to specific questions about the case beyond its public statement, though the agency separately said it is encouraging people without legal status to self-deport. Advocates and family members said deportation to Venezuela would put Garcia-Oden at risk given his documented history as a mayor sentenced in absentia for opposing the government.

Updates

2026-02-25 — Immigration judge ordered deportation to Ecuador, not Venezuela [4]

An immigration judge ordered Garcia-Oden deported to Ecuador rather than Venezuela, invoking the Trump administration's July 2025 third-country removal agreement with Ecuador, even though he has no ties to that country and had formally sought asylum based on fleeing Venezuela. His attorneys appealed the order. As of a March 21, 2026 interview at the jail, Garcia-Oden remained in ICE custody at the Butler County Jail awaiting rulings on both the deportation appeal and a separate motion for release on bond; he described the wait as "agony" and said he had lost weight in custody, a characterization the jail's chief deputy disputed.