A 16-year-old student at a Bronx public high school was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a scheduled check-in in Lower Manhattan on Thursday, underscoring a rising number of minors caught up in the administration’s stepped-up deportation efforts.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed the arrest on Friday. Attorneys for the teen, identified as Gotham Collaborative High School student Joel Camas, said he is being held at an Office of Refugee Resettlement youth shelter in the Bronx. The New York Times first reported his detention following coverage of his impending appointment earlier in the week.
Camas came to the United States from Ecuador with his mother in 2022, fleeing gang violence, according to court filings. Without legal representation, their asylum cases were denied, and an immigration judge ordered them removed in February 2024, his lawyers said. Afterward, advocates connected Joel—still a minor—to legal support. In April, a New York State family court found he qualified for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS), a federal protection for young people deemed abused, abandoned, or neglected by one or both parents and who may be eligible for lawful permanent residency.
Despite that finding, ICE required Joel to report for a routine check-in, where agents arrested him. “His mother self-deported to Ecuador, and Camas remained in the USA alone as a minor. Fortunately, now Mr. Camas will be reunited with family,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement confirming the arrest. When asked about his SIJS status, McLaughlin responded that “he has a final deportation order.”
On Friday, attorneys from the New York Civil Liberties Union and The Door filed an emergency petition for a writ of habeas corpus, seeking to halt his deportation and secure his release while his case proceeds. They argue that detaining a child with SIJS eligibility violates U.S. immigration law and constitutional protections. “ICE’s actions of arresting a child – with legal status reserved for particularly vulnerable minors – at a routine check-in is breathtakingly cruel and a clear violation of U.S. immigration law and the Constitution,” said Elizabeth Gyori, senior staff attorney at the NYCLU. “When the Trump administration punishes children with lawful status for following the rules, it turns our justice system into a farce.”
Even with SIJS, securing a green card can take years due to substantial backlogs and annual visa limits. Under the prior administration’s guidance, DHS deprioritized deportations of SIJS youth to focus on individuals who posed threats to national security, public safety, or border security. That directive was withdrawn in June, and immigrant rights groups have sued; the case is ongoing.
“Many young people with special immigrant status are getting detained all over the country,” said Beth Baltimore, deputy director of the Legal Services Center at The Door. “It’s not something we’ve seen before.” She added that the administration is effectively signaling that these protections no longer shield youth from removal.
New York City education officials expressed dismay at Joel’s arrest. “This is a student who should be at school today with his classmates,” said Education Department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein.
Unlike arrests in public courthouses that are often witnessed by observers, ICE has detained dozens of children out of public view during check-ins at 26 Federal Plaza and at several satellite offices operated through a subcontractor. Data compiled by the Deportation Data Project shows that federal agents in the New York City area arrested 48 children in June and July amid a nationwide enforcement surge; 32 were deported. More than 60 children born after 2008 were arrested between late January and late July. More recent figures are not yet available, in part due to the government shutdown.
Among those detained have been multiple public school students, including Mamadou Mouctar Diallo, Joselyn Chipantiza-Sisalema, and Dylan Lopez Contreras. In August, THE CITY reported that a 6-year-old girl and her mother were arrested at an ICE check-in at 26 Federal Plaza; they were swiftly transferred to a family detention center in Texas and deported to Ecuador within days. The administration has also launched initiatives targeting unaccompanied immigrant youth as they turn 18, offering cash payments of $2,500 to encourage them to depart the country voluntarily.
As legal battles play out, families, schools, and advocates are scrambling to support affected students, while attorneys push courts to clarify the protections SIJS is intended to provide.
Leave a Comment