Parents and teachers in southern California are urgently asking for help to find a fourth grader who is being “held captive” by immigration authorities in Texas.
Torrance Elementary School student Martir Garcia Lara attended an immigration court appointment with his father in Houston on May 29 “when suddenly they were detained and separated from each other,” according to a message from the school’s Parent Teacher Association.
The boy and his father are reportedly in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
“He’s alone and he’s not able to return home,” PTA president Jasmin King told KTLA.
“We have not received any information on why they were detained,” she said. “All we know is that Martir is just a fourth grader who’s by himself, without his dad, without a parent, and just in a place that he probably doesn’t know, so we can only imagine what he might be feeling.”
A spokesperson for the Torrance Unified School District told The Independent that officials are unable to confirm details of the family’s case and are “actively working with the family and authorities to understand the facts of the situation.”
“We remain committed to the safety and well-being of all our students and will continue to follow proper protocols as more information becomes available,” the statement added.
The Independent has requested comment from ICE.
Federal authorities have taken roughly 500 children into government custody since President Donald Trump took office, according to CNN.
Those children were either in homes considered to be unsafe or because the government arrested their family members or placed them in removal proceedings.
The boy’s alleged arrest follows a wave of immigration enforcement actions inside courthouses across the country in recent weeks, with masked officers from as many as 20 different law enforcement agencies patrolling entrances, lobbies and hallways to arrest immigrants moments after their scheduled hearings and appointments.
Courthouse operations and arrests at other immigration offices have been reported in more than a dozen cities, which advocacy groups and immigration attorneys have labelled a “dragnet” operation sweeping up immigrants who are following the law.
In New York City, protests erupted after ICE arrested a high school student seeking asylum during his court appearance and after federal agents swarmed a Manhattan immigration office, where officers also arrested a congressional staffer.
Similar operations have been reported across the country, from Seattle and Los Angeles to Phoenix and Miami.
After taking office, the president issued an executive order that greenlights fast-track deportation proceedings for immigrants who cannot prove that they have continuously lived in the United States for more than two years.
That “expedited removal” process — historically used at the U.S.-Mexico border — is now being expanded across the country. The American Civil Liberties Union sued to block the measure, arguing people seeking asylum “would get less due process contesting their deportation than they would contesting a traffic ticket.”
The American Immigration Lawyers Association says courthouse arrests are a “flagrant betrayal of basic fairness and due process” for people who are simply following the rules.
“Immigration courts are being weaponized, judges are coordinating with ICE to dismiss cases and immediately funnel individuals into the fast-track deportation pipeline known as expedited removal,” the group said in a statement. “These are not fugitives. They are individuals, many who are seeking protection from torture in their countries, complying with the law.”
The group has collected dozens of reports from immigration attorneys whose clients were immediately arrested after their court appearances only to be placed into expedited removal proceedings where they can be rapidly deported without an opportunity to appear before a judge.
Detainees include immigrants of all ages, including families with young children and toddlers as young as two and three years old, according to the group’s analysis of recent arrests.
In at least one case, ICE agents detained children who were in court with their parents and attempted to arrest a mother with a nursing infant, the report found.
“These arrests appear not to be based on a need to detain individuals due to concerns over them being a flight or public safety risk,” according to the group. “This raises serious due process concerns as these chaotic detentions will likely make people, who are otherwise trying to comply with the law, scared to appear for their court hearings.”
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