{"id":197210,"date":"2026-03-19T01:06:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T01:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197210\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T01:06:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T01:06:13","slug":"family-rallies-in-jacksonville-for-gabriela-lozano-sousas-release-from-ice-detention-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197210\/","title":{"rendered":"Family rallies in Jacksonville for Gabriela Lozano Sousa’s release from ICE detention"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Florida family<\/a> is calling for the release of a woman being held in ICE detention in Baker County.<\/p>\n

A small group gathered outside the Bryan Simpson U.S. Courthouse in Downtown Jacksonville on Wednesday in support of Gabriela Lozano Sousa, a Venezuelan woman whose husband says has been detained for months while her immigration case moves through federal court.<\/p>\n

Her husband, Brandon Garrison, said he is determined to keep fighting for her release.<\/p>\n

\u201cI voted for immigration reform, I believe in that, but this is immigration abuse,\u201d Garrison said. \u201cMy wife\u2019s not a criminal. She didn\u2019t break any laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to her family, Sousa entered the United States legally in 2023 through a humanitarian parole program and was inspected at Miami International Airport. Garrison said the two married in April 2025, just days before her parole was set to expire, and began the process for her to apply for permanent residency.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a good life,\u201d said Garrison. \u201cWe had a beautiful home together, and my wife worked at a very famous restaurant. Everybody loves her. She\u2019s a very sweet person.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in October 2025, after a domestic dispute, police were called.<\/p>\n

Garrison said both he and Sousa were arrested, but he bonded out while she was immediately placed under an ICE detainer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were both essentially arrested for misunderstanding,\u201d he said. \u201cI bonded out right away and she had an ICE detainer instantly, so I couldn\u2019t post her bond.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next day, Sousa was transferred into federal immigration custody, where Garrison said she has remained for months.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m super depressed and just trying to do everything I can to keep my family together and stay here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Department of Homeland Security sent First Coast News the following statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cGabriela Alejandra Lozano Sousa, a criminal illegal alien with a previous arrest for domestic abuse, entered the United States on April 21, 2023, under the Biden Administration\u2019s disastrous CHNV program. This program never conferred legal status \u2013 Sousa has always been in the United States illegally. ICE arrested her on October 15, 2025, and she will remain in ICE detention pending her immigration proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sousa\u2019s attorney, Taymoor Pilehvar, said April 19 is a critical deadline in her case. He said if she is removed from the country after that date, she could face a 10-year bar from reentering the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf she leaves the country and has a bar on re-entry, she\u2019ll have to wait for her husband\u2019s petition to be approved,\u201d Pilehvar said. \u201cOnce that\u2019s approved, she will have to apply for a forgiveness waiver to come back and she\u2019ll have to show that her husband is suffering extreme hardship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pilehvar said the case is now before Judge Jordan E. Pratt in federal court, who will decide what happens next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Florida family is calling for the release of a woman being held in ICE detention in Baker…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[91528,9000,15696,91529,91527,23072,116,118,117,91530],"class_list":["post-197210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-brandon-garrison","tag-downtown-jacksonville","tag-federal-immigration","tag-gabriela-alejandra-lozano-sousa","tag-gabriela-lozano-sousa","tag-immigration-reform","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-sousa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}