A southern California community is calling for the release of a high school student whom US immigration agents arrested earlier this month while he was walking his dog.
Benjamin Marcelo Guerrero-Cruz was supposed to be starting his senior year at Reseda charter high school this month. But just days after his 18th birthday, masked Ice agents detained him as he walking his dog in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Van Nuys in what his family described as a kidnapping.
The agents allowed his dog to run loose, and treated Guerrero-Cruz like a criminal and joked while arresting him, his family said in a GoFundMe.
“He is more than just a student – he is a devoted son, a caring brother, a loyal friend, and a valued member of our community,” the family wrote, adding that he helps care for his younger brothers. “He is a good student, with a kind heart, who has always stepped up for his family.”
Educators and advocates held a rally to bring attention to Guerrero-Cruz’s detention, demand his release, and call for answers from local officials, such as the Los Angeles unified school district superintendent, about the unmarked vehicle and plainclothes, masked men who took him on the morning of 8 August.
“How can any of us turn a blind eye to cruel, unjust treatment happening right in front of us? Benjamin does matter; his rights matter,” Valerie, one of Guerrero-Cruz’s neighbors, who saw the teen in the unmarked truck before he was taken into custody, said during the Tuesday press conference.
She told the downtown Los Angeles crowd she was walking her dog when she saw an unmarked SUV and several men who were wearing tactical vests and were either fully or partially masked. They were holding Guerrero-Cruz’s dog’s leash, but soon after Valerie approached one of the men unclipped the dog’s leash and let it run off, she said.
Two of Guerrero-Cruz’s teachers also spoke at the rally and talked about the 18-year-old’s drive and determination to graduate, despite only recently coming to the US.
“One of our own, Benjamin, a child who once sat in our classrooms who dreamed his dreams under our watch, was kidnapped by Ice,” said Claudia Rojas, who taught Guerrero-Cruz shortly after he came to the US.
“This is not just his fight – it’s our fight. When one student is taken, all students feel the fear. When we stay silent, we give permission for the next child to disappear,” she said.
Another of his former teachers, Liz Becerra, visited Guerrero-Cruz, at an Ice processing center in Adelanto, an hour and a half north of Los Angeles. She told the rally that Guerrero-Cruz relayed a harrowing tale of being surrounded by masked men while walking his dog, handed over to federal agents, and then brought to the metropolitan detention center in downtown Los Angeles. He was not allowed to shower or brush his teeth for a week, Becerra said.
Now he is in Adelanto, where he told Becerra he is in a small cell with about two dozen other men with little access to food and water.
“He wants to graduate. He’s made it this far based on his will and on his dream, and that’s being taken away from him,” Becerra said. “He’s in detention; he should be in a classroom with us.”
The arrest comes as Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigrants continues to unfold across southern California, where thousands of people have been arrested this summer at workplaces, at stores and near schools.
Los Angeles Unified school district, which has nearly 800 schools across the county, has adopted new strategies to protect students and “ensure that schools remain safe, supportive spaces for all children and families – regardless of immigration status”.
“Schools are safe spaces,” Alberto M Carvalho, the LAUSD superintendent, said in a statement. “Immigration enforcement near schools disrupts learning and creates anxiety that can last far beyond the school day.”
Carvalho has said he is in communication with Guerrero-Cruz’s mother, who has alleged that the boy was being held with dozens of men, receiving water only once a day and insufficient food, in a space that doesn’t have enough room for everyone to sit or lie at the same time. Many have reported filthy conditions and not having access to clean clothes and towels for days at a time inside the detention facility Guerrero-Cruz is being held.
His sudden arrest has sparked outrage in his community. Fellow soccer players said it was “heartbreaking to see him taken from us like this, and we’ll truly miss not just the player, but the person he was”.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Guerrero-Cruz was being detained pending his “removal” from the US.
“Benjamin Guerrero-Cruz, an illegal alien from Chile, overstayed his visa by more than two years, abusing the visa waiver program under which he entered the United States, which required him to depart the United States on March 15 2023,” the agency said.
