A Detroit high school student remains in immigration custody after a traffic stop led to his arrest by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.
Watch Brett Kast's and Brittany Toolis' video report:
Maykol Bogoya Duarte, an 18-year-old junior at Western International High School, was driving himself and four other students to a field trip on May 20 when he was pulled over near Rockwood.
Local police discovered Duarte had no driver's license and contacted Border Patrol for translation assistance. Agents then confirmed that Duarte and his mother had existing deportation orders, leading to his arrest and transfer to ICE custody.
A CBP spokesperson said in a statement:
An illegal alien with a final deportation order was arrested while driving high school students on a field trip near Rockwood, Michigan. Local police pulled over the vehicle and found the driver had no license—only a City of Detroit ID. Border Patrol confirmed he was in the country illegally, having ignored a judge’s removal order and lost his appeal. All four passengers were students from Western International High School. The driver was the only one without legal status and was turned over to ICE custody.
The incident has sparked outrage in southwest Detroit, with dozens of community members attending a Detroit school board meeting Tuesday to demand action.
One of Maykol's teachers, who planned the field trip, spoke at the meeting, saying Maykol and the other students skipped school and decided to drive themselves to the field trip location at Lake Erie Metropark.
"This was an adolescent mistake. Every single student inside and outside the situation knows this was a terrible idea, but I also think we all can agree that skipping school and driving without a license shouldn't be justification for imprisonment and deportation," said Kristen Shoettle, Duarte's teacher.
"This is family separation. Every detention and every deportation is family separation," said Ruby Robinson, senior managing attorney at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center.
Robinson, who represents Duarte, said the teen and his mother came to the U.S. from Colombia to escape violence. Their application for legal protection status was denied, and while they planned to comply with self-deportation orders, they needed to obtain a passport for Duarte first.
“His mom is still here in the United States. ICE has her passport and she’s prepared to buy tickets to depart the United States with him, but unfortunately, before they were able to get a passport for Maykol and leave the United States, this happened,” said Robinson.
Robinson says Maykol was only 3.5 credits away from graduating, so they have filed a stay application that he says is still pending.
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"What we are advocating for right now is that ICE release him, let him finish his studies, graduate from high school, and depart the United States at his own expense and not taxpayer expense," Robinson said.
According to his attorney, Duarte has no prior criminal record. He was initially held at the Chippewa Correctional Center in Michigan's Upper Peninsula but has since been transferred to a facility in Louisiana, according to Shoettle.
During the school board meeting, officials reaffirmed their sanctuary district policy but indicated limited options for intervention.
"We are a sanctuary district. That is already articulated in our sanctuary policy," said Bishop Corletta J. Vaughn, a Detroit Public Schools Community District board member. "We are committed to protecting the rights of all students to have access to free public education regardless of a child or family member's immigration status."
Community members vowed to continue advocating for Duarte's release.
"We're fighting for students. Students who look like me, students who come from southwest Detroit, because they deserve to be a student," said Brianna Bryant from Detroit.
Anthony Sanchez, who traveled from Ann Arbor to attend the meeting, added: "It's happening to a child, a literal child that's in the United States and who's here. He's here to get an education and be a law-abiding citizen as best as he can."
Robinson said Duarte could be deported any day.
This article was written by Brett Kast and Jordan Nagel for the Scripps News Group in Detroit.
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