Students who showed up for a sold-out power vinyasa class in Wynwood on Saturday found an empty studio instead of their teacher. Johan Blanco, a 44-year-old yoga instructor from Venezuela, was reportedly detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents that day, according to a fundraiser launched on his behalf.
The GoFundMe campaign, titled “Support Johan Blanco’s Fight for Freedom,” was created by organizer Alanna Taylor within a day of the arrest, as reported by Miami New Times. It set a $40,000 goal to cover legal fees, family support, and other detention-related costs, and as of Monday it had already blown past that mark, raising more than $40,700. Blanco’s exact holding location remains unclear, and as of Monday he had not yet appeared in the ICE Online Detainee Locator System, which lists people currently in immigration custody or those released within the past 60 days.
That absence from the database is not unusual on its own. Immigration attorneys note that the locator system typically runs 24 to 72 hours behind an arrest, since detainee names can take several days to appear while individuals are held at local field offices, transit hubs, or booking centers, according to Lincoln-Goldfinch Law. Reporting from EL PAÍS has similarly found that South Florida detainees are often held for multiple days in short-term processing cells at ICE’s Miramar sub-office before being transferred to regional facilities such as Krome.
A Decade-Long Fixture in Miami’s Yoga Scene
Blanco moved to Miami in 2015 and built a following in the city’s wellness community, with more than 24,000 Instagram followers tracking his classes. He began his yoga journey in 2008 and, before relocating to South Florida, taught hatha yoga at embassies in Venezuela. In Miami he specialized in power vinyasa, a fast-paced, more athletic style of practice, teaching at Mimi Yoga’s Wynwood location…