On May 21, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) illegally detained Dylan, a Bronx high school student who showed up for a routine immigration court hearing. Dylan, a student enrolled at Ellis Preparatory Academy in the Bronx, was working to support his mother and younger siblings. Dylan’s arrest and ongoing detention cause him enormous harm and rob him of the legally permitted opportunity to seek asylum relief with the full protections offered to him under the law.
NYLAG attorneys are representing Dylan and working to bring him home. Chalkbeat New York reporter Michael Elsen-Rooney first broke the story:
The Bronx high school student from Venezuela was trying to do everything right.
Dylan, 20, fled his home country last year and turned himself in at the U.S. border in April 2024 through a Biden-era entry program. He requested asylum and was permitted to enter the country while he awaited a court date, allowing him to obtain a work permit and driver’s learner permit, according to his lawyers and his mom, Raiza.
[…]
Dylan’s arrest was part of a nationwide blitz. In courthouses across the country, government lawyers asked judges to dismiss cases against migrants, then immediately reopened them as “expedited removal” cases — allowing authorities to apprehend their targets on the spot and thrust them into a sped-up deportation process with fewer legal checks, according to lawyers and numerous news reports.
The rapid moves have prevented his lawyers from making contact with him, since it usually takes several days after a transfer to set up a consultation, according to an attorney from the New York Legal Assistance Group, or NYLAG, which is representing Dylan. Raiza, who has spoken to Dylan by phone, said he has not received medical care and has spent most of the time with his hands and feet cuffed.
Read the full story in Chalkbeat New York, originally published on May 26, 2025.
