Latest news with #BenjaminMarceloGuerrero-Cruz
Time of India
2 days ago
- Time of India
Who is Benjamin Marcelo Guerrero-Cruz? All about the LA teen detained by ICE while walking dog
On a peaceful morning in Los Angeles, an 18-year-old was simply walking his family's dog when he was suddenly arrested by immigration agents wearing masks. What was meant to be a calm, carefree moment quickly turned into a stressful and upsetting event, as he was detained by ICE for overstaying his visa. This incident has raised concerns among his family, friends, and the local community. What happened? Benjamin Marcelo Guerrero-Cruz is an 18-year-old high school senior at Reseda Charter High School in Los Angeles. He was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on August 8 while walking his family's dog along Sepulveda Boulevard in Van Nuys. According to authorities, he overstayed the terms of his Visa Waiver Program by more than two years. Who is Benjamin Marcelo Guerrero-Cruz? Benjamin is an 18-year-old student at Reseda Charter High School in Los Angeles. He is originally from Chile. On August 8, while walking his family's dog in Van Nuys, his life was abruptly changed when masked agents from ICE detained him. His dog was reportedly tied to a tree and left to roam freely on Sepulveda Boulevard. He had just turned 18 and was preparing to start school, but now he is in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security, facing possible deportation for allegedly overstaying his visa by more than two years. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like American Investor Warren Buffett Recommends: 5 Books For Turning Your Life Around Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List Undo Benjamin has been taken into custody, which has disrupted his plans for senior year. A statement from the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that Guerrero-Cruz overstayed his visa by more than two years, violating the Visa Waiver Program, which required him to leave the country by March 15, 2023. Aftermath of the arrest Benjamin is more than just a teenager; he is a vital part of his family. He helps take care of his 5-month-old twin brothers and his 6-year-old sibling. His family set up a GoFundMe page to help with legal and living expenses, describing him as a 'devoted son, caring brother, loyal friend, and valued member of our community.' That's not all. His soccer teammates and friends have spoken highly of him, praising his quiet strength and sportsmanship. One teammate described him as 'rock-solid – always showed up, worked hard, and could be counted on week after week,' while another noted his humility, calm under pressure, and ability to uplift those around him. Benjamin's detention has sparked concern about how immigrants are treated and about immigration policies. The GoFundMe page also recounts a disturbing moment: as agents arrested him, they tied his dog to a tree, unclipped its collar, and released it to roam freely on Sepulveda Boulevard. Benjamin's mother shared troubling details with LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, describing the detention environment as overcrowded, with up to 40 men in a small space, no room to sit or lie down, insufficient food, and limited access to water. 'He drinks water once a day,' said Carvalho, as reported by the Los Angeles Times, recounting the mother's words. 'She was crying with every word that came out of her mouth. ' Benjamin's family started a GoFundMe campaign to cover legal and living costs. As of now, the campaign has raised over $47,000, showing the community's support during this difficult time. A family associate shared that the agents joked about having a weekend of drinks "thanks to him" as they detained the teen. What's next? Benjamin's detention marks a sudden and traumatic start to his senior year, and it's a major setback in his young life. This arrest has also raised fears among immigrant families in Los Angeles, especially with ongoing immigration enforcement near schools. Earlier this year, immigration agents tried to enter an elementary school and mistakenly handcuffed a 15-year-old with disabilities near his school. Benjamin's arrest adds to these existing concerns, especially as enforcement near schools continues. Carvalho emphasized the lasting impact these actions have on students: 'These moments imprint on young minds, distracting them from academic lessons and replacing intellectual curiosity with worry.' Vigil held for victims of Texas shooting
Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Hindustan Times
Who is Benjamin Marcelo Guerrero-Cruz? LA teen detained by ICE while walking dog; family launches GoFundMe
Benjamin Marcelo Guerrero-Cruz, an 18-year-old high school student from Los Angeles, was taken into custody by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week. Guerrero-Cruz was picked up by the ICE while he was walking a dog near Sepulveda Boulevard in western LA County. Benjamin Marcelo Guerrero-Cruz with one of his brothers. (GoFundMe) The incident came as a shock to the family of the Reseda Charter High School student, who are facing trouble gathering the legal fees required to challenge the ICE arrest. The family has set up a GoFundMe campaign which has raised over $47,126, at the time of this writing. Rita Silva, an associate of the family, is running the campaign. "Less than a week ago, he turned 18, filled with dreams for his Senior year of high school," the campaign states. It revealed that the masked agents tied the "dog to a tree and then unclipped the collar off him to run loose on the Sepulveda Blvd." "They treated him like a criminal, telling as they joked while arresting him that 'thanks to him, they get to drink this weekend', laughing about the $2,500 they just secured," it adds. Also read: Who was James Ford? Suspect in fatal shooting of Erin Hayne in Windham found dead Benjamin Marcelo Guerrero-Cruz is a senior at Reseda High School in the LAUSD district. He has twin brothers, aged 5 months, and another 6-year-old brother and he used to take care of them, as per a Facebook post on his detention. The post describes him as a "devoted son, a caring brother, a loyal friend, and a valued member of our community." In a similar incident on Friday, a popular TikToker known for creating content on the ICE raids in Spanish was violently detained by the ICE at her LA home. She was violently pinned down by the masked agents, which led to some injuries and hospitalization. A video of the arrest has gone viral on social media, garnering millions of views.
Los Angeles Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Back-to-school season sees LAUSD, parents work to protect kids from ICE
Benjamin Marcelo Guerrero-Cruz was walking his family's dog in Van Nuys last week when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took him, according to a GoFundMe page started on behalf of Guerrero-Cruz's family. The 18-year-old rising senior at Reseda Charter High School was scheduled to start the academic year Monday, along with more than half a million other students in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Instead, Guerrero-Cruz is spending his first week of school in a detention center — 'in a freezing detention cell with 50 strangers,' the GoFundMe page alleges. The detainee locator tool on the Department of Homeland Security website confirms that Guerrero-Cruz, who was born in Chile, is 'in ICE custody.' In a statement to KTLA-TV, a Homeland Security official said: 'Benjamin Guerrero-Cruz, an illegal alien from Chile, overstayed his visa by more than two years, abusing the Visa Waiver Program under which he entered the United States, which required him to depart the United States on March 15, 2023.' The fundraiser's organizer, Rita Silva, alleges that Guerrero-Cruz does not currently have access to basic hygiene or an adequate food source. 'He has only water, and since being detained, he has not had proper access to a bathroom, there are just two toilets for everyone to share. He is cold, scared, and one of the youngest there,' Silva says. 'Other detainees, many older than him, have taken him under their wing to protect him.' The fundraiser looks to help Guerrero-Cruz's single mother with legal services, immigration fees and living expenses while caring for her 5-month-old twin sons and 6-year-old son. As the school year starts this week, LAUSD is forced to deal with the reality of the ongoing ICE raids throughout the city and being monitored for how it plans to protect students and families.s This week, my colleague Howard Blume reported that a 15-year-old boy was reportedly handcuffed, detained and had guns drawn at him by immigration agents just outside Arleta High School on Monday. The situation was later described as an alleged case of mistaken identity by L.A. schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho. 'He was not an adult,' Carvalho said. 'This is the exact type of incident that traumatizes our community and it cannot repeat itself.' The teenager — a student with disabilities who attends a different school — was with his family members when the arrest occurred. He was ultimately released after his family intervened, L.A. Unified School District officials said. 'Such actions — violently detaining a child just outside a public school — are absolutely reprehensible and should have no place in our country,' Kelly Gonez, the LAUSD District 6 school board member who represents Arleta High, said in a social media post. 'As we prepare for the start of the school year this week, we are doubling down on our efforts to protect students and families such as by providing safe zones outside of our campuses, working with partners,' she continued in her statement. 'I denounce these violent aggressions, the continued unconstitutional targeting of our Latino community and call on the federal government to immediately stop harassing, abducting and tearing apart our communities.' Speaking to the concern that Gonez and many parents across L.A. have regarding student safety, Carvalho said that the district will create and expand 'safe zones' around campuses before and after school, and that everyone must work to protect the most vulnerable populations. Carvalho will send staff across the school system beginning the first day of classes to patrol the streets around schools and ensure the safe passage of students from school to home. The safe zones will cover areas most affected by immigration enforcement. In recent weeks, Carvalho said LAUSD has been equipping households with informational packets that explain 'the rights of our children and their parents, but also providing easy access to the resources that we have available to all of them.' Additionally, LAUSD is working to reroute buses to make transportation more accessible to families and has created a 'compassion fund' to provide general help for families, including legal assistance. LAUSD officials aren't the only ones looking out for students as classes start. Community organizations are equipping parents and fellow concerned citizens with tools and plans for how to ensure a safe start to the academic year. On Wednesday night, Unión del Barrio — an independent political organization advocating for immigrant rights and social justice — held a Zoom meeting called 'Community Plan to Defend Our Schools.' Guadalupe Carrasco Cardona, an LAUSD educator, coordinator and leading member of Unión del Barrio, spoke to the Times ahead of the meeting. 'It's really going to be about community members coming out around the school areas [and] even small businesses,' she said. 'I know at my school a lot of students go to the liquor store, they pick up their little munchies, they pick up their coffee or beverages and things like that. And so it's a callout to all those other folks to know what to do in the event that ICE is in their vicinity and how they can help protect all students.' The agenda for Wednesday's online gathering was in part informed by the crowdsourced concerns from parents and educators. 'A lot of parents are concerned about transportation, [specifically] what's going to happen from their house to the bus and then on the bus and then from the bus to school,' Cardona said. 'We have a lot of parents who are afraid of what happened at the Arleta orientation. I know at my school, we have a lot of parents that have been asking for alternative ways to complete all the paperwork that's necessary for students to register for the new school year.' But for Cardona, Thursday, the first day of classes in the district, will become the new reference point for how deeply affected families in the school system were by ICE over the summer. 'As a teacher I fear for students that don't return, that aren't just like in hiding, but that may have been been kidnapped and deported without us knowing because over the summer it's really difficult to keep track,' Cardona explained. 'Some things happen by word of mouth, but some things just happen, especially during the mass raids. We've been trying to keep track, but it's been very difficult to confront.' The organization's goal is to have families' trips to school be as uneventful as possible so that students can focus on getting an education. And although LAUSD has put forward a strong face and message about student protection, Cardona expressed concern about the district's current, seemingly nonexistent implementation strategy. 'I have not as an educator — and I'm also a coordinator, so I actually deal with buses — heard a single peep about how [the student protection strategy] is going to be different and what I need to be doing for my students so that it's different than last year, for instance,' she said. 'I'm very happy about the fact that L.A. Unified, L.A. elected officials and our leaders are at least in word in support of our migrants and immigrants. So that's huge because that gives us the support to do this outside organizing that we're doing,' Cardona said. 'I mean, it's not enough because it would be better for us to have actual official resources and support instead of us just doing this on our own.' More than 350 people logged into the Wednesday night Zoom call, on which Unión del Barrio leadership shared phone numbers for community members to dial if they see suspicious activities, fielded questions from participants and gave a tutorial on how to spot ICE vehicles. (A helpful hint: Their cars are usually American brands and have unusual license plates.) 'We feel that as teachers, we are part of the front line of the defense of our students and community. We're proud of that, because not only do we get to work with students and educate them, but we also have that responsibility to make sure that they are OK,' said Unión del Barrio member Ron Gochez, who also serves as an LAUSD teacher in South L.A. 'What we are asking, our call to action to community members is every one of us lives near schools — it may be schools where your own children go, it may be schools that you don't have children at, but it's in your neighborhood,' Cardona said Wednesday night to an online crowd that included United Teachers Los Angeles union members and concerned citizens. 'We are asking you to come out. Show up to your local school tomorrow. Tomorrow's schools start at 8:30 a.m. throughout the L.A. area or whichever city that you're in. Come out be the eyes and ears.' As the academic year kicks off, Cedar-Sinai is offering free back-to-school vaccinations and general health screenings for young kids and teens through its mobile clinic. The program does not ask about immigration status and all clinics take place on LAUSD property. The goal of the program is simple: Increase access to family healthcare and protect communities from diseases. The mobile clinics look to provide as smooth a transition into the school year as possible by checking off inoculations required by institutions. 'Kids entering transitional kindergarten need boosters for measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough) and polio. This includes the DTaP vaccine — given to younger children — which protects against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis,' Cedar-Sinai nurse practitioner Anne Traynor said in a news release. 'Older children, especially 11-year-olds and teens, receive the Tdap booster, which offers continued protection against the same three illnesses but in a smaller dose appropriate for adolescents and adults. It's not just one age group; we're vaccinating children from birth through age 18.' 'These vaccines protect against childhood preventable illnesses — measles, chickenpox, pneumonia, meningitis,' Cedar-Sinai pediatrician Arthur Cho said in a news release. 'In the past, we saw high rates of these infections. Today, because of vaccines, we rarely see them. When children aren't vaccinated, they're at greater risk of getting sick, ending up in the hospital, or even worse.' As for the people with vaccine hesitancy, Cho 'understands the concerns' but continues to trust the studies and science behind it all. 'We've studied these vaccines for decades. Side effects are generally mild — fever or some swelling — but the alternative is far worse,' Cho said. 'These diseases still exist and can be deadly. Getting vaccinated protects your child and others in the community.' To see where the mobile clinics will pop up throughout August, click here. This week De Los editor Suzy Exposito spoke with Mary Guibert, the Panamanian-born mother of late musician Jeff Buckley, about what it was like to raise the musical legend. Buckley's life and tragic death have resurfaced into the public conscience thanks to a recent documentary about his life, 'It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley,' which received a limited release Aug. 8 and is expanding to more theaters this weekend before going to HBO later in the year. In the piece, Guibert recounts moving to Orange County as an immigrant from the Panama Canal Zone in the '60s. She mentions the joyous and the fraught connections she has to Latinidad and how she shared her heritage with her son. Guibert also discusses what finally led her to agree to work with director Amy Berg on the new doc. Unless otherwise noted, all stories in this section are from the L.A. Times. It's been nearly 55 years since more than 20,000 demonstrators marched through East Los Angeles on Aug. 29, 1970, for the National Chicano Moratorium Against the Vietnam War. But the protest for peace devolved into conflict between demonstrators and sheriff's deputies. By day's end, hundreds were arrested and trailblazing Latino journalist Ruben Salazar was dead. In 2020, The Times commemorated the event's 50th anniversary with a holistic account of the actions that took place that day, the cultural moment in which it occurred and its lasting political/social/cultural ramifications. Check out our coverage here.
