Days before 16-year-old Kevin was expected to graduate from Francis T. Maloney High School in Meriden, federal officials detained him in Hartford and moved him to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Texas. After six months in detention, he returned home to a standing ovation from community members.
The family requested that Kevin is mentioned by his first name alone.
“I'm grateful to all of you because thanks to you I made it through,” Kevin said in Spanish at his homecoming celebration at the Meriden Public Library Wednesday, the day before Christmas.
Kevin was born on Christmas, and he was serenaded with the ‘happy birthday’ song in Spanish and English.
Detained at a routine appointment
Kevin and his father attended a routine immigration check-in appointment scheduled in early June in Hartford, according to Connecticut Students for a Dream (C4D), a youth-led nonprofit for undocumented immigrants. They were detained by ICE officials at that appointment and were transferred to Texas.
C4D members then rallied to get Kevin legal representation with support from Kevin’s fellow schoolmates, local Meriden officials, several Connecticut lawmakers and a host of leaders from various faiths.
The group launched a fundraiser to help Kevin and his family with legal fees and had raised close to $13,000 as of Christmas Eve.
Kevin was set to get his diploma a week before the detention. His name was read aloud at the ceremony and he graduated as an honor-roll student.
Classmate Ella Rossi expected to sit next to Kevin at the graduation ceremony, and even though he wasn’t able to attend, she said she cheered when his name was called.
Rossi was unable to attend Kevin’s homecoming at the library, but her mother Gina Manning was there to show her support after they both learned of the news on social media.
“[Ella] called me excited and she said, ‘Did you hear?’ I said, ‘Yup!’ I knew immediately what she was talking about,” Manning said. “We’re all so happy that he gets to be home with his family for the holidays and for his birthday.”
'It should be just enough that they’re a kid'
It took a village to get Kevin home.
Andrea Sanchez, a senior C4D staff member, said Kevin’s legal team was part of a new community-driven initiative in Connecticut, the American Immigrant Legal Clinic (the TAILC Project), that connects immigrants facing detention and deportation with local advocates and attorneys across state lines.
Kevin’s legal team had lawyers in Connecticut and Texas working on his case, including Maegan Faitsch with Connecticut Legal Services, a legal aid agency.
“While Kevin was in a detention facility in the middle of nowhere Texas, we were preparing to file a motion in his immigration case to halt his deportation,” Faitsch said.
According to Faitsch, Kevin was almost deported twice while he was in detention. However, he never stopped fighting, she said.
“ICE took Kevin [in the detention facility] in the middle of the night with his father to deport him in secret. The ICE agent told Kevin he could make one last call, and he called me,” Faitsch said. “While other kids might have called their family members or their friends, he made a call to his lawyer at three o'clock in the morning.”
The team eventually filed a habeas corpus petition in the Southern District of Texas – a legal request to challenge the detention – which led to his release after the federal government chose to not defend his detention in court.
Kevin said the lengthy confinement took a toll on his mental health – something that other young people at his detention facility experienced too.
“Most of the time you spend there is filled with frustration and sadness,” Kevin said in Spanish. “Being there for months and months and months, it's like [some of the other young people] go through a period of madness. They start talking to themselves. They start walking around aimlessly.”
Kevin said he spent his time reading or playing with his hands, enduring the confinement in the hope of seeing his family again.
State Rep. Matt Blumenthal [D-Stamford] was also on Kevin’s legal team as his attorney from Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder.
Blumenthal brought attention to the fact that the federal government did not explain the legal justification for holding Kevin.
“Kevin is exemplary, but in this country, a kid shouldn't have to be exemplary,” Blumenthal said. “They shouldn't have to be courageous to avoid being unjustly detained … and imprisoned for six months illegally. It should be just enough that they’re a kid.”
Even though Kevin has a pending immigration case, Faitsch said she believes that there is no reason he could be detained again.
She said Kevin’s family and legal team declined to disclose details about his father at this time, but Kevin has been in contact with his dad.
“Really, I want all this support to not be just for me,” Kevin said. “I’m asking for all of us to come together so we can help more people.”
