Contributed photo
Mario Aguilar Castañon.
New Haven is rallying around a Wilbur Cross junior snapped up by federal immigration authorities and locked up in a Massachusetts detention center.
“Somehow,” Mayor Toni Harp vowed, “we’ll get him back.”
A rally is planned for Friday on behalf of the student, Mario Aguilar Castañon. At Tuesday night’s Board of Education meeting, officials also pledged to help prevent his forced return to Guatemala.
A rally is planned for Friday on behalf of the student, Mario Aguilar Castañon.
After Tuesday night’s Board of Education meeting, officials also pledged to help prevent his forced return to Guatemala.
“I think it’s outrageous,” Mayor Toni Harp said. “Somehow we’ll get him back.”
Acting Superintendent Iline Tracey said she has been in contact with Edith Johnson, the principal at Cross, where students have been concerned for weeks about the case.
“As a community, we’ll put our arms around him, becauase he’s one of our own,” said Board of Education President Darnell Goldson.
Friday’s rally, organized by local immigrant rights advocate Kica Matos and a host of local organizations including the Connecticut Immigrant Rights Alliance (CIRA), the Connecticut Bail Fund, and Unidad Latina en Acción, will be in support of Mario Aguilar Castañon, a Wilbur Cross junior who, according to the rally’s organizers, was arrested and detained by Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) in September.
According to a press release from Matos, Aguilar Castañon emigrated from Guatemala to the United States two years ago without permission after he refused to join a violent local gang, and was beaten and threatened because of that.
He was arrested in August on alleged traffic violations including driving without a license. He was subsequently apprehended by ICE officers and detained at a center in Massachusetts after he voluntarily went to the Milford Courthouse to address the traffic charges, Matos wrote.
“Since he has been in detention, Mario has continued to pursue his studies,” Matos wrote. “His teachers have been sending him class materials so that he can keep up with his school work. His case has already generated tremendous support from a cross section of New Haven residents, including Wilbur Cross students and educators, faith leaders, parent advocates, public officials, advocates and young people throughout the city who are outraged that this has happened to one of their peers.”
The rally will take place at 4 p.m. outside New Haven City Hall. Click here for more information, and read below for Matos’s full press release.
Contributed photo
Mario Aguilar Castañon.
Mario Aguilar Castañon is a junior at Wilbur Cross High School in New Haven. ICE arrested him in September, threw him in detention, and refused to set any bond. Today, instead of being in school pursuing his dream to be a scientist, this New Haven teenager is stuck in ICE detention with no access to resources, support, or instruction.
Mario is originally from Guatemala. A violent local gang actively recruited Mario, and when he refused to join he was beaten and later threatened with death. Ultimately, Mario knew he would not survive much longer in Guatemala, so – having no other choice – he gathered his courage and made the long and dangerous journey to the United States on his own.
When Mario arrived in the United States, almost two years ago, he moved in with an uncle just a year older than him, enrolled in Wilbur Cross High School, and quickly became a part of his New Haven community. When he is not in school, Mario can’t just be an average high-schooler.
Instead, since the age of 16, he has had the responsibilities of an adult – to provide for himself and to pay the rent and to send money back to support his family in Guatemala. So, instead of video games and sports, Mario spends his free time working in the hopes that he can provide a better life for himself and his parents and siblings.
In August, Mario was arrested after his cell phone slid off of his dashboard on the way home from work and he knocked into a parked car as he tried to pick it up, doing minor damage. Although no sobriety test was ever performed, the officer arrested him and accused him of driving under the influence.
Weeks later, Mario went to the Milford Courthouse – of his own volition – to address those charges. As he was entering the courthouse, he was detained by ICE and taken away to a detention center in Massachusetts, where he still remains.
After Mario was detained by ICE, his community responded quickly and forcefully – including the students, teachers and administrators in his school, hundreds of whom wrote postcards and letters to the immigration court on his behalf, asking that he be released from detention. He presented a comprehensive plan to the immigration court showing that he would never need to drive and would continue to live a productive life without posing any threat to the community.
Unfortunately, the immigration judge ignored the clear evidence that Mario is a valued member of his community who will remain in New Haven, go to his immigration court proceedings, and not pose a threat to anyone. He decided that a single arrest – without a conviction – made him too dangerous to release, in spite of the fact that the Connecticut criminal justice system had already determined that releasing Mario would pose no danger to society. And he decided, in spite of hundreds of pages of evidence to the contrary, that Mario didn’t have ties to the community that would ensure his appearance at immigration court.
Since he has been in detention, Mario has continued to pursue his studies. His teachers have been sending him class materials so that he can keep up with his school work. His case has already generated tremendous support from a cross section of New Haven residents, including Wilbur Cross students and educators, faith leaders, parent advocates, public officials, advocates and young people throughout the city who are outraged that this has happened to one of their peers.