A judge ruled on Monday the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement violated federal law when agents arrested a 16-year-old during a mandatory check-in.<\/p>\n
The teenager has a special immigrant juvenile status, which is a protection meant to shield children who were abused, neglected or abandoned.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
A judge ruled on Monday the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement violated federal law when agents arrested a 16-year-old during a mandatory check-in
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His attorney says that what happened to Joel is part of a pattern, one affecting hundreds of children across the state, some as young as 6 years old
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NY1 reached out to the Department of Homeland Security, but did not hear back<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I feel happy. I was a little nervous, but now I feel better than happy,\u201d Joel said.<\/p>\n
The 16-year-old is being identified only by his first name because he\u2019s a minor with special immigration protection status.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt a little worried. It was [a] room when they arrested me. It was a room that [had only] cement chairs, and there was nothing else. I was there for seven hours,\u201d Joel said.<\/p>\n
His attorney says what happened to Joel is part of a pattern, one affecting hundreds of children across the state, some as young as 6 years old.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis administration is not following the rules, not following the law and we saw it here,\u201d Elizabeth Gyori, a senior staff attorney for the New York Civil Liberties Union, said.<\/p>\n
For the 16-year-old, the next steps are simple: to go home to the Bronx and explain to his family everything he\u2019s been through over the last few weeks.<\/p>\n
Joel also plans to talk to his mom, who\u2019s in Ecuador. She self-deported, fearing detention herself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI recently called my mother. She was a little worried. But now we\u2019re going to explain to her what happened,\u201d Joel said.<\/p>\n
He also has a message for the people who stood up for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to thank my lawyer first and her entire team, and, well, thank my whole community for always supporting me,\u201d Joel said.<\/p>\n
The teenager is now free, but his future will be decided in federal court.<\/p>\n
NY1 reached out to the Department of Homeland Security, but did not hear back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A judge ruled on Monday the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement violated federal law when agents arrested a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[25,128,2301,388,9,24,12,63,129,131,130,27],"class_list":{"0":"post-43125","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-app-top-stories","9":"tag-bronx","10":"tag-immigration","11":"tag-louis-finley","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-the-bronx","17":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","18":"tag-the-bronx-news","19":"tag-top-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}