Last week, in coordinated actions across the country, Immigration and Customs Enforcement set traps for immigrants, including at New York City's immigration court in Lower Manhattan. Many immigrants who went in for regularly scheduled hearings on their deportation proceedings were given what would first appear to be good news: ICE prosecutors were moving to dismiss their cases.
But ICE was dismissing those cases, which can take years, in order to deport people immediately, under a process known as expedited removal, which allows the government to remove people from the country without the benefit of a court hearing in front of an immigration judge. ICE officers, in coordination with their counterparts in courtrooms, were waiting for immigrants to walk out of court, and then arrested dozens of them, taking them into custody in order to swiftly deport them.
That's what happened to one Bronx high schooler last week, reports Chalkbeat New York.
Dylan, a 20-year-old asylum seeker who came to the United States from Venezuela in April 2024, is a student at ELLIS Preparatory Academy, a Bronx public school that works with new immigrants who want to attend college. His trip to the United States wasn't easy, his mother Raiza, who came separately in 2023, said. While traveling through Mexico, he was kidnapped and held for ransom. But once in New York City, he obtained his work permit and was working when he wasn't in school to help his family move out of a homeless shelter.