AUSTIN, Texas — A Northeast Early College High School senior ended up in immigration detainment following a traffic stop during the early hours of Friday, May 1, leaving his fellow students fearful and shocked.

According to the Austin-American Statesman, a friend of 18-year-old Luis Fernando Cabrera received a text at 2:05 a.m. containing a photo of police lights reflected in the driver’s side mirror. The friend then checked Cabrera’s iPhone location, which showed the senior at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in San Antonio.

Sheridan Nolen, press secretary for the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), said a trooper stopped Cabrera on May 1 for expired registration. The trooper, “a federally certified Delegated Immigration Officer,” couldn’t verify Cabrera’s identity through DPS databases and eventually “determined the driver was not lawfully present in the United States” and contacted ICE.

The Statesman reported that Cabrera was driving home from work at a Northeast Austin Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, where he worked as a manager, at the time of the traffic stop.

The Statesman also reported that Cabrera lived in the U.S. without legal status and pending a ruling on his asylum case after coming to the country from Mexico at 11 years old. Cabrera’s family told the Statesman that they “fled Mexico after a legislator threatened to kill them for reporting the politician’s younger brother for sexually abusing the Cabreras’ teenage daughter.”

Press secretary Nolen said officers like the one who stopped Cabrera has Delegated Immigration Officer status under 287(g) agreements with ICE.

“DPS officers in every region across Texas — including Troopers and Special Agents — have undergone 287g certification training to become Delegated Immigration Officers and are authorized by ICE to identify, arrest or detain individuals with an immigration violation,” Nolen said in a statement.

Northeast Early College High School confirmed Cabrera’s enrollment as a student but said it had no information to share since the incident took place off campus.

Cabrera’s soccer coach and some teammates spoke to him over the phone this week, and many of the students are “fearful about where he is,” the soccer coach told the Statesman.