More supporters to visit Durham teen held by ICE
DURHAM (WTVD) -- The Durham teen who was taken by immigration in January, is about to get another visit from a second group of supporters.
Jimena Ramos is one of them. Ramos came to the U.S. when she was only 7 months old. She's now almost 20 and a student at Durham Technical Community College. When she thinks about what happened to Wildin Acosta, she says that could have happened to her.
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"I was surprised that it happened in Durham because that's where I grew up," Ramos said. "Even though I am a DACA student, that could, that could end at any time."
The looming threat she says is always there if she were to no longer fall under the Deferred Action for Child Arrivals, has pushed her to fight for Acosta. So she's joining a group of other supporters getting ready to make the more than seven-and-a-half hour drive to the Lumpkin, Georgia facility where he is being held.
"I want Wildin and the rest of the detainees to know there's still that support," said Ramos.
Wildin Acosta has been detained since January.
Acosta lives in the Stewart Detention Center. He's been there for months after ICE took him from his home one morning in January as he was leaving for school.
Since then, his family and Riverside High School family, have been working to bring him home.
They've been appealing to lawmakers and the community to fight for the teen. Just last month, his own mother was finally able to visit him herself.
Now friends and even teachers are organizing another road trip, so Acosta can see more friendly faces while his legal battle continues.
Acosta's attorney, Evelyn Smallwood, said at the end of April, U.S. Citizen Immigration Service accepted Acosta's asylum application so he now officially has a pending asylum claim. She said he still, however, has a removal order and ICE is "not relenting" and not letting him out despite several, continuing requests to do so.
