(Washington, DC) – US immigration authorities have detained at least eight Nicaraguan exiles whom the Ortega-Murillo government has stripped of their nationality, including some with pending asylum claims, Human Rights Watch said today.
Seven of the people detained were among 222 political prisoners whom the Nicaraguan government expelled to the United States, declared “traitors,” and stripped of their nationality on February 9, 2023. The US government granted them humanitarian parole for two years. The eighth, Luis Galeano, a journalist, was stripped of his nationality on February 15, 2023, along with 93 other government critics. People with knowledge of their cases told Human Rights Watch that at least four had pending asylum claims.
“After offering refuge to these critics of the Nicaraguan government just three years ago, the United States is now detaining and threatening to deport them,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “International law prohibits the United States from returning anyone to face the threat of persecution or torture. US authorities should not be trying to send these men back into danger.”
At least two of the eight were arrested during a court appointment or asylum interview between April and September 2026.
It appears that five of the eight men are still in detention. In September 2026, Human Rights Watch interviewed the legal representative of two of the detainees and the wife of a third. Human Rights Watch also confirmed through the Online Detainee Locator System, maintained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), that four of the men are currently in ICE custody and reviewed the status of their cases in the Executive Office for Immigration Review’s automated case information system.
The detention of another has been reported by news outlets, but Human Rights Watch was unable to independently verify his case.
Two others have since been released. Galeano was released on bond on September 26. Marvin Castellón Ubilla was released in July after more than two months in ICE custody.
Two of the men had been convicted in Nicaragua on drug charges in cases that Nicaraguan human rights groups describe as politically motivated. One was charged with illegal possession of a regulated firearm in the United States and placed on probation, according to a court order reviewed by Human Rights Watch.
ICE detained Galeano, 48, on September 14. An immigration judge granted him bond on September 23, and he was released on September 26 after being held for several days at the Krome immigration detention center in Miami. His family told Human Rights Watch that he applied for asylum in June 2019, holds a work permit, and has no criminal record in the United States. He has an immigration court hearing scheduled for October 27.
Human Rights Watch has documentedabusive conditions at Krome, detainees being held for days in overcrowded and freezing intake cells without bedding, practices that amount to inhuman and degrading treatment. On September 11, the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General published findings from an unannounced May 2025 inspection of Krome. It documented violations of medical and use-of-force standards, including the improper use of a chokehold on a detainee.
Under Co-Presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, Nicaragua has become one of the most authoritarian countries in the Western Hemisphere, Human Rights Watch said. Those who criticize the government face prison, exile, and/or the loss of their nationality. The Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners, a Nicaraguan human rights group, registered at least 68 political prisoners, 31 of whom it considered victims of enforced disappearance, as of September 2026. Between February 2023 and September 2024, the Nicaraguan government stripped 452 Nicaraguans of their nationality and confiscated their property, including the 222 people it expelled to the United States.
The Trump administration has imposed sanctions on numerous Nicaraguan officials for their role in repression.
The US government has sharply increased deportations to Nicaragua. Based on a Human Rights Watch analysis of Immigration and Customs Enforcement data, the government deported over 6,300 Nicaraguans between January and July 2026, nearly twice the 3,323 for the same period in 2025. According to media reports, many Nicaraguan deportees face surveillance upon return.
US authorities are also increasingly deporting Nicaraguans to third countries. Since January 2025, over 1,100 Nicaraguans, including 400 through July 2026, have been sent to third countries, including 864 to Mexico, 63 to El Salvador, 50 to Guatemala, 49 to Honduras, and 26 to Panama, Human Rights Watch analysis of ICE data has found.
In November 2025, the US deported Juan Barilla to Honduras. He is a peasant who had spent over two years in prison and was among the 222 people expelled to the United States in 2023.
In March 2026, the UN Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua reported that the government runs a transnational “surveillance and intelligence network … to identify, monitor and target exiled Nicaraguans.” It documented at least a dozen killings or attempted killings of exiled critics, including the June 2025 murder in San José, Costa Rica, of retired army major Roberto Samcam. Deporting Nicaraguan exiles to Honduras or other neighboring countries may place them within reach of the Nicaraguan authorities they fled, Human Rights Watch said.
The Convention against Torture prohibits the US government from returning anyone to a country where they would face a real risk of torture. The 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees also bars returning refugees to face the threat of persecution. This can include indirect returns, in the form of chain deportations from third countries.
US authorities should not deport anyone to Nicaragua who faces a risk of persecution or torture there, Human Rights Watch said. Nor should it deport people to third countries where they face such risks, including through onward deportation to Nicaragua. Anyone facing removal to a third country should receive adequate notice and a meaningful opportunity to challenge it before an immigration judge. While people remain in detention, US authorities should guarantee humane treatment, adequate medical care, and access to their lawyers.
Congress should require the Department of Homeland Security to report how many Nicaraguans who have been stripped of citizenship are in ICE custody, how long they have been detained, and which countries have been designated for their removal.
