Community demands release of 18-year-old detained by federal agents

Community members, immigrant rights organizations and LAUSD teachers continue to demand the immediate release of 18-year-old Benjamin Marcelo Guerrero-Cruz, who was detained by federal agents in Van Nuys almost two weeks ago.

On Tuesday, members of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), Union del Barrio, Association of Raza Educators, Students Deserve Los Angeles and other community-based organizations hosted a press conference where they gave an update on his condition, calling for his immediate release and urging LAUSD to allocate their resources to aid Guerrero-Cruz legal situation. 

“We understand the urgency of this matter,” Ron Gochez, a member of Union del Barrio and an LAUSD teacher, told CALÓ News. “We want the district to know that we are going to continue to organize and pressure them to use all of their resources to help out Benjamin or any student who gets kidnapped by ICE or federal agents.” 

As previously reported by CALÓ News, Guerrero-Cruz, a rising senior at Reseda High School, is currently being held and detained at the Adelanto Detention Center in San Bernardino County after he was taken by ICE agents the morning of August 8 while walking his dog. 

This past Saturday, one of Guerrero-Cruz's former teachers, Liz Becerra, visited him at the Adelanto Detention Center, where he told her about the brutal conditions inside.  

He told Becerra he is being held in a small cell with about two dozen other men, with little access to food and water and sleeping next to the toilet. “He had to wake up every time someone went to the restroom so he would not be urinated on,” Becerra said. He also told her that he was unable to shower and brush his teeth for the first week of his detention. “He is in detention; he should be in a classroom with us,” she said. 

According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Guerrero-Cruz overstayed his visa, which expired on March 15, 2023, “abusing the Visa Waiver Program under which he entered the United States.”

A DHS spokesperson said he will remain in ICE custody pending removal. 

The 18-year-old student came from Chile, escaping crime and unsafe areas. 

Valerie, one of Guerrero-Cruz’s neighbors, who witnessed his arrest, saw the teen when he was already inside one of the unmarked SUVs on that August morning and described the incident as a “terrifying sight.”

She, who like Guerrero-Cruz was also walking her dog that morning, saw several men wearing tactical vests holding Guerrero-Cruz’s dog’s leash and later, after she approached, one of the men unclipped the dog’s leash and let it run off. 

She saw the SUV where Guerrero-Cruz was placed inside drive off and approached the remaining vehicles. She asked the men who they were and who they had taken. According to Valerie, the men only vaguely pointed to an apartment building, refusing to give her an apartment number or address. 

“I knew I had to act. I created a note with my contact information and taped it to the apartment building, hoping someone would call,” she said. “A few hours later, Benjamin’s mom called me.”

The family has started a GoFundMe page to help pay legal fees and other essentials. “[The federal agents] treated him like a criminal, [saying], as they joked while arresting him, that 'thanks to him, they get to drink this weekend,' laughing about the $2,500 they just secured,” the family wrote in the page's description. 

Becerra said Guerrero-Cruz relayed to her that the people who detained him were masked men who never identified themselves. “At that point, they took him to a nearby parking lot of a U.S. Postal Service and they waited there for about 10 to15 minutes. During that time, he heard them brag about the money they would receive for capturing him,” Becerra said. 

Indiscriminate raids have continued despite a court order that bans immigration agents from profiling and arresting people in L.A. and other Southern California regions based on race, language, job or location.

Gochez said it is alarming that, despite being unlawful, the federal government continues to violate the judge's order by arresting individuals and now high school students without due process. 

“We know that this temporary restraining order, which was supposedly going to put a halt to these kidnappings based on racial profiling, is out the window. It has no effect on what is happening right now in the streets,” Gochez said. 

Guerrero-Cruz's detainment is not an isolated incident; LAUSD schools and neighboring communities have been under attack by federal arrests since and before the start of the school year, which began last Thursday. 

Nathan Mejia, a 15-year-old boy, was detained earlier this month by federal agents outside Arleta High School ahead of the new school year. The teenager was pulled from a car, handcuffed and briefly detained. Officials would later describe the case as one of “ mistaken identity.”

In the wake of the ICE raids, LAUSD launched the “We Are One” campaign to formalize and amplify their efforts to ensure they have protocols in place for responding to immigration personnel requests for information and resources.  

As part of the campaign,  families also have 24/7 access to Know Your Rights resources, legal referrals, mental health services and a dedicated family hotline. LAUSD also created the Family Preparedness Packet—available in multiple languages—to help families understand what to do if approached by immigration officers. 

Yet the community is calling on LAUSD, the largest school district in California and the second largest in the U.S., to take more action during this period of heightened immigration enforcement. 

Alberto M. Carvalho, the LAUSD superintendent, previously said he is in communication with Guerrero-Cruz’s mother. 

Ingrid Villeada, a teacher at Ninety-Third Street Elementary School in South L.A., said the district should be able to provide immediate legal support for students who are detained. 

“Every single student deserves protection,” she said. “We need to make sure that every single lawyer that we have in [the LAUSD] buildings is working night and day, because it is a shame that we have to have a GoFundMe to help pay for students to have a lawyer. That should not be the case.”

The Association of Raza Educators has also conducted various online and in-person trainings to teach community and school members about the importance of defending and patrolling schools like that of LAUSD. Along with Union del Barrio, they have conducted training to better protect teachers, students and staff from any future ICE raids.  

“It could happen to my son, it could happen to your son, to your neighbor, to your student,” Guadalupe Carrasco Cardona from the Association of Raza Educators said. 

Students from Miguel Contreras Learning Complex and members of Students Deserve said that immigration raids havetaken a toll on students; many are afraid of showing up to the new school year. “We have a senior class and many are missing the last year of school, finishing off toward graduation. They are making kids scared to come to school,” one of the students told CALÓ News. 

Guerrero-Cruz’s family and community advocates hope for his immediate release and say they will continue to advocate not just for him but for any students targeted by deferral agents.

“We want [undocumented students] to know that your teachers do care about you. We are out here trying to fight and organize in whatever way we can. DO not give up," Gochez told CALÓ News. “We know it is tough and it is a very difficult time but if we organize we can defend ourselves. Lean on your teachers, talk to you teachers and just know that your teachers will do anything possible to defend you inside and outside of the classroom.”