Detroit high school student detained by ICE pleads for deportation halt until graduation
A Detroit high school student facing deportation after being arrested by Border Patrol in May while on a field trip is now pleading with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to release him so he can graduate. He has gained the support of some advocates and U.S. House Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Detroit, who said Tuesday, June 10, the student "should be released immediately and allowed to get his diploma."
Maykol Bogoya Duarte, 18, of Detroit, was stopped by a Rockwood police officer on May 20 while on his way to a Downriver park, accused of tailgating the officer. The police officer, who was driving in an unmarked car, then called Border Patrol because of a "language barrier," according to a Rockwood police report obtained Monday, June 9, by the Free Press. Duarte, an immigrant from Colombia, was later transported five hours north to an ICE detention center at the Chippewa County Correctional Facility in Sault Ste. Marie and is now in a Louisiana detention center. He has no criminal record, his attorney said, but had lost his appeal to stay in the U.S.
Duarte was notified Sunday, June 8, "that he was going to be moved and his deportation was imminent," his attorney, Ruby Robinson, told the Free Press Monday. On Tuesday, Duarte was being held at Pine Prairie ICE Processing Center in Louisiana, the ICE locator website for detainees showed.
"Louisiana is usually the staging area for removals outside the U.S.," Robinson said, fearing he could be removed soon along with other Colombian nationals.
Duarte has only a few more credits to graduate and could voluntarily leave the U.S. after he gets his high school diploma, Robinson and advocates said.
Robinson said he filed on Monday an application with the Detroit ICE office "to stay his removal so that he can graduate from high school. He has three and a half credits left, and we think he'll be able to finish that before the end of the year."
A spokesman for ICE did not return a message Tuesday, June 10. Officials with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which Border Patrol is a part of, previously told the Free Press that Duarte, who has lived in the U.S. for about a year and a half, had a previous order to leave the country, describing him as an "illegal alien with a final deportation order."
More: Border Patrol arrested a Detroit student on a field trip. He now faces deportation.
Duarte had arrived in the U.S. from Colombia along with his mother, crossing the border and applying for asylum. They lost their appeal to stay in the U.S. One challenge is that Duarte does not have a Colombian passport, which he would need to be sent back to Colombia, Robinson said.
In a similar case in Massachusetts, ICE released last week a high school student in a suburb of Boston who was arrested May 31 on his way to volleyball practice. The arrest of the immigrant, Marcelo Gomes da Silva, 18, drew protests and condemnation from Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, who said she was "disturbed and outraged."
A petition calling for Duarte's release and Michigan elected officials to speak out against his detention has garnered more than 1,300 signatures as of Tuesday evening. The petition was started by 482 Forward, a Detroit nonprofit group advocating for students.
"Governor (Gretchen) Whitmer, Senator (Elissa) Slotkin, Senator (Gary) Peters, Representative (Shri) Thanedar, Representative (Rashida) Tlaib, and Detroit Public Schools — We are asking you to publicly condemn the detention of one of your students, to support his request to be released in order to finish his high school education, and to put preventative policies in place to better support immigrant students and families," the petition reads.
Whitmer and Michigan's two Senators have not released any statement about Duarte. In contrast to Democratic governors in other states such as Colorado, Illinois and Massachusetts, Whitmer has not spoken about immigration issues this year or released statements criticizing President Donald Trump on immigration enforcement. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan has previously said the city will continue to cooperate with ICE.
Thanedar, whose district includes southwest Detroit, where Duarte's school is located, said in a post on X on Monday, June 9: "ICE should not be detaining high schoolers! Maykol Bogoya-Duarte just needs 3 credits to graduate, but was put in detention by ICE. He should be released immediately and allowed to get his diploma."
Tlaib hasn't commented specifically on Duarte, but reiterated on Monday in a post on X her previous call to abolish ICE.
Chrystal Wilson, a spokesperson for Detroit Public Schools Community District, did not return messages seeking comment on Duarte and what the district's policies are in protecting immigrant students. The school that Duarte attended in southwest Detroit has a sizable Latino immigrant population.
The Rockwood police report confirms some details of Duarte's arrest previously described by two school officials. The Free Press was the first media outlet to report on Duarte's arrest in a May 28 report.
The officer said at 11:20 a.m. on May 20 that he was traveling in an unmarked car on Huron River Drive in Rockwood when "I noticed a vehicle directly behind me traveling so closely to my vehicle."
Duarte was on his way to Lake Erie Metropark, where a group of high school students had gathered for a field trip. Three or four other students were in the car with Duarte, who was driving a 2008 Chevy SUV.
"The vehicle then opened up the distance with me, and again closed to an unsafe distance," the Rockwood officer alleged in this report. "I pulled to the shoulder near Truman Road and allowed the vehicle to pass. I took up a position behind the vehicle ... and activated the emergency lights on my vehicle."
The officer said "the driver ... told me, in broken English that he did not have a driver's license. He was able to relay to me that none of the other four occupants had a license."
"Due to the language barrier, I request the United States Border Patrol to assist in determining proper identity of the driver and other occupants," the officer wrote. "Once agents from USBP arrived, the investigation was turned over to them."
Robinson said the case illustrates why local police should use interpreters to interact with people who may not know English well instead of calling Border Patrol or ICE. He worries this will hurt attempts to fight crime because victims and witnesses may be reluctant to come forward to police.
"This sheds a light on the importance of language access and the consequences of ... relying on federal immigration authorities to do that work," Robinson said. "We're concerned that for anybody who contacts the police or are interacting with police — whether somebody suspected of committing a crime or whether it's a victim coming forward — if local law enforcement is going to rely on federal officials to do interpreting, that's going to have a chilling effect on people trusting law enforcement."
Robinson said Duarte would leave the U.S. once graduating, describing him as a young child who recently turned 18 and just made an error.
"He made an unfortunate mistake, and it turns out to be the worst mistake he ever made in his life," Robinson said. "And so he acknowledges that."
Duarte is "a good-natured kid" who was learning English, Robinson said. "He was improving his studies in school. He seems to be very well-liked by his teachers and his fellow classmates and other students."
Reuters contributed to this report.
Contact Niraj Warikoo: nwarikoo@freepress.com, X @nwarikoo or Facebook @nwarikoo
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit high school student detained by ICE asks for deportation halt
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