The Daily Journal – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested a former captain of a Miami college soccer team at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport after the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program for Venezuelan nationals ended. She has an active asylum application.
ICE agents stopped 28-year-old Claudia Carolina Rodríguez Caglianone as she went through the airport security checkpoint before boarding a flight with friends to North Carolina to attend the FIFA World Cup final. Her family said she entered the United States legally from Venezuela in 2017 on a tourist visa, later applied for asylum, and received TPS in 2023.
Democratic Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz said during a news conference outside the ICE detention center in Pompano Beach that the arrest resulted from the end of TPS under President Donald Trump and from the growing number of ICE arrests at airports involving migrants with pending asylum claims, expired visas, or immigration status adjustments still under review.
“Right now, ICE agents are sweeping through airports to detain law-abiding residents like Claudia, disrupting lives, wasting taxpayers’ money, and betraying America’s values,” the lawmaker said.
Rodríguez Caglianone’s arrest prompted her relatives and Representative Wasserman Schultz to launch a campaign seeking her release from the ICE detention center in Pompano Beach. Her family said authorities first took her to the Miramar detention center in the Miami metropolitan area before transferring her to Pompano Beach. They also said they have been unable to communicate with her during certain periods.
Meanwhile, supporters launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for an immigration attorney in Miami. Her cousin, Ruth Lares-Caglianone, wrote on the fundraising page: “Claudia is a hardworking, kind, and big-hearted person. She means so much to me and to everyone who knows her. Watching someone you love go through something this difficult is heartbreaking.”
The case comes amid a record number of migrant detentions in the United States. ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) carried out more than 43,000 arrests in June, the highest monthly total since the start of President Trump’s second term.
With information from EFE.
