Lamar High School junior Geremy Arteaga Cruz, 19, has been detained at the Polk Adult Detention Facility since January.
Courtesy photo
Last year, Geremy Arteaga Cruz’s luck was finally changing.
He had a roof over his head after months of homelessness, and volunteered at a program teaching immigrants basic English. He’d found a new passion — barbering — and cut friends’ hair when he wasn’t at Houston ISD’s Lamar High School.
Most promising, however, was that the asylum application he had filed after fleeing Honduras was granted. Arteaga Cruz arrived in the United States with his twin sister as an unaccompanied minor in 2023, and he was one step away from clearing a hurdle that had tripped up hundreds of other Central Americans who had instead been detained or deported.
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The momentum came to a halt in January when federal immigration agents detained Arteaga Cruz, despite the progress he had made on his asylum claim.
“Everything changed out of nowhere,” Arteaga Cruz said in Spanish during a video call from the Polk Detention Facility in Livingston. “I’m worried I won’t be able to finish (high school) … I’ve missed a lot of school days, a lot of lessons and tests. I’m worried that I’ll just stay locked up.”
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Arteaga Cruz’s detention fits with the Trump administration’s efforts to target asylum seekers. But his case stands out because his application had already been approved by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and his process was nearly complete, his lawyer said.
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While several asylum seekers in the Houston area — including the wife of a military veteran, a high school soccer captain, a state prison guard and Episcopalian pastor — have been detained or deported while navigating the asylum process, their cases were still in their early stages.
But because USCIS failed to update his status, Arteaga Cruz could face a similar fate.
Detained for four months
In January, Arteaga Cruz was with friends and classmates when police arrived at a convenience store where the group had gathered. He said one of the teenagers had an open container of alcohol in his vehicle, and police questioned the entire group.
He said he didn’t have an ID or passport and was never given a sobriety test, but was arrested under suspicion of a misdemeanor charge of public intoxication. He was turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Harris County Jail.
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The ICE office in Houston confirmed agents came into contact with Arteaga Cruz in the jail and declined to provide more information.
TEXAS TRACKER: See the Texas ICE detention tracker
Arteaga Cruz’s legal team contends the teenager should not have been detained by ICE and should be released from immigration detention.
“This (USCIS) error has resulted in serious consequences for Geremy, who has now been in immigration detention for four months,” said attorney Lauren Fisher Flores, the legal director at South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project, or ProBAR, the agency representing Arteaga Cruz.
The Houston asylum office granted Arteaga Cruz’s application in June 2025, Fisher Flores said. But officials with USCIS never issued an official decision notice.
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“As a result, neither Geremy nor his attorney were informed of this positive decision, and the USCIS online portal was never updated with the final outcome,” she said.
Arteaga Cruz also has a pending application for a T Visa, which grants victims of human trafficking temporary permission to remain in the country and work if they cooperate with law enforcement. He filed his application in June 2025, Fisher Flores said. She declined to give additional details about his application but said he is a victim of human trafficking.
“For much of his childhood, Geremy wasn’t allowed to go to school and instead was forced to work,” Fisher Flores said. “After receiving legal and social services in Houston, he was finally able to attend high school. At Lamar High School, he built friendships and participated in his community by cutting his classmates’ hair and volunteering at a literacy program.”
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‘An awful game’
HISD has lost nearly 4,000 immigrant students — including Arteaga Cruz — since President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign began. Many have stopped going to school because they’re afraid they or their families will be detained by ICE, families and educators told the Chronicle. Some, like Sam Houston Math, Science and Technology student Mauro Yosueth Henriquez, have been deported.
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The loss of immigrant students could create a “subclass of Texans” with limited opportunities in education and the workforce, some experts have warned.
Even if he is released soon, Arteaga Cruz fears he may not earn his high school diploma.
In Texas, students can enroll in public schools until they are 21. Arteaga Cruz, who is 19, is worried he’ll have to repeat his junior year and miss the deadline to graduate.
The detention of Arteaga Cruz and others has already affected the broader Houston community. Houston-area schools have lost more than 8,000 students since the federal crackdown began, accelerating school funding cuts and broader enrollment declines. Houston’s population growth, largely fueled by international migration, is also expected to stagnate or decline in the coming years.
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Before his detention, Arteaga Cruz spent every Saturday as a volunteer at the University of St. Thomas, which has offered English language classes for more than three decades.
The classes have served as a starting point for thousands of immigrants from around the world, longtime director David Godwin said. But class sizes are dwindling, and when Arteaga Cruz was detained, he said more stayed home out of fear.
Now, Godwin and other volunteer teachers worry the program may end in its 35th year.
“America tells you you have to do it the right way, and when you are trying to do it the right way, now it’s not the way. So my community is confused,” said a volunteer teacher who asked to remain anonymous due to fears of deportation. “We are in a crossfire of politics … it’s an awful game.”
‘We have to keep fighting’
Arteaga Cruz has been detained at the Polk Adult Detention Center in Livingston for more than four months. He passes the time with daily calls from his sister. His friends call sometimes, too, but he often struggles to find the words to say.
He’s met many detainees as the facility’s unofficial barber, although he’s been there long enough to see many come and go. He takes sleeping pills and antidepressants daily.
“Before I was able to go to the psychologist. Now I have a lot of anxiety, I get really worried,” he said. “The whole day I feel sad and weak.”
Arteaga Cruz crossed paths briefly with Henriquez, the senior and soccer captain at Sam Houston, before he was deported to Honduras in April.
He often fears returning to Honduras himself, where he and his sister have few family ties and no support. Their father left the two as children, and their mother moved to Spain for better job opportunities, his twin sister, Fernanda Arteaga Cruz, said.
“I am very scared because it’s difficult. But in Honduras, we don’t have anyone,” she said in Spanish. “We have to keep fighting and trying to find a future here.”
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Arteaga Cruz’s legal team has filed a motion to terminate his immigration case based on his wrongful arrest and because he applied for asylum as an unaccompanied teenager. If granted, he would be released from detention while the asylum and T visa processes continue. His next appearance in immigration court is Thursday.
If released, Arteaga Cruz plans to graduate from Lamar High School and become a licensed barber. His sister graduated from high school in Florida in May without him present. Her celebration was dampened by her brother’s detention and her own uncertain future.
Separated by state lines, detention bars and court proceedings, the twins cautiously made plans to reunite.
“Not all immigrants are criminals. Many of us come from our countries because we really don’t have any other options,” Fernanda Arteaga Cruz said. “He was a good student. He did a lot of good things, and even with all that, he’s been detained. He’s still fighting to move forward in life.”