HARTFORD, Conn. _ An immigration judge has granted asylum for 18-year-old Mario Aguilar, a student at Wilbur Cross High School in New Haven who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in September.
Dalia Fuleihan, one of Aguilar's lawyers from New Haven Legal Assistance Association, confirmed Tuesday at a news conference that a judge in Boston granted Aguilar's asylum request Monday evening. But she said he may remain detained if the Department of Homeland Security appeals the decision.
"The Department of Homeland Security has 30 days to decide whether or not they're going to appeal this decision. As of now, we don't yet know whether they're planning to do so," she said. "Mario is going to remain detained for these 30 days, and if the government does decide to appeal, it could take several months more."
"We are thrilled that Mario received asylum, which we all know he deserved," Fuleihan said. "However, it is not a complete victory, and the fight has to continue ... It was cruel and inhumane that he was detained in the first place and is even more so now."
Odilia Aguilar, Mario Aguilar's cousin, said Mario "is not doing well. He's lost a lot of weight and is very sad. ... It's a horrible situation for any young person to be in, and he needs to be released. We are still waiting for him to come home."
Mario Aguilar says he fled Guatemala alone two years ago to escape death threats from a local gang. After living in New Haven for two years as an undocumented immigrant, he was picked up by ICE at the Milford Courthouse in September. Unidad Latina en Accion, along with Wilbur Cross students and faculty, held a rally Dec. 23 in New Haven to protest Aguilar's detention.
In August, Aguilar was arrested and charged with driving under the influence after hitting a parked car on his way home from work. Aguilar said he was trying to pick up his cellphone, which had slid off his dashboard, but police said he was under the influence.
Several weeks after his arrest, Aguilar went to the Milford Courthouse alone to deal with the charges. ICE detained him there and sent him to an adult detention facility in Bristol, Mass., where he has lived for the past four months.
Wilbur Cross guidance counselor Mia Breuler said she was the first to realize Aguilar had been taken by ICE. She called nearby hospitals, thinking he may have had a medical emergency. Finally, she discovered his arrest.
"It was bizarre for us to notice that a student had disappeared unexpectedly," she said. "It changed our whole community."
Edith Johnson, principal of Wilbur Cross High School, said it was her Christmas prayer for Aguilar to return home safely. She said faculty and staff at the high school have been "on the front lines" of the fight for his freedom every day and called it a valuable civics lesson on the broken parts of the U.S. immigration system.
"I can't tell you how grateful I am that we are at this point, (but) I think it took too long," she said. "This is truly a young man who is what we want at Wilbur Cross."
New Haven Mayor Toni Harp called the charges against Aguilar "arbitrary, vindictive and cruel." Mayor-Elect Justin Elicker applauded her efforts to partner the city with local immigration activists. He said the community is celebrating "the undoing of something that never should have happened in the first place."
"An 18-year-old-kid should not be detained period ... for trying to seek a better life, for trying to escape persecution," Elicker said. "There's something deeply wrong in our society."
Although Aguilar remains detained in Massachusetts, friends and family are hopeful that their continued efforts will bring him home soon.
"Every voice matters, just like his," said student Jeidy Gonzalez, 18, who helped organize the Wilbur Cross community. "We're always going to support him no matter what."
