A high school football player who has been in the U.S. since he was a toddler was in custody for possible deportation to his native Mexico, prompting a protest Monday by classmates outside an Arizona sheriff's office.
Thomas Torres, who is scheduled to graduate May 22 from Desert View High School, was at a federal holding facility in Casa Grande, Arizona, according to the family he has been living with. Now, he is scheduled to appear in immigration court on that date.
Lorena Rodriguez said Torres had lived for years at her family's home, where he shared a room with her brother, who also is set to graduate. Their caps and gowns are already hanging in the bedroom closet.
Quiriat Rosas, 17, speaks to the crowd after students from Desert View High School marched to the Pima County Sheriff's Department on Monday, May 6, 2019 in Tucson, Ariz. Approximately 200 students walked out to protest the detention of their classmate, Thomas Torres, who was stopped by a sheriff's deputy on May 2 and was detained until Border Patrol arrived. (Mamta PopatArizona Daily Star via AP)
Torres' detention, coming shortly before a major rite of passage in the only country he remembers, is a stark example of the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration.
Rodriguez, who launched a GoFundMe page to raise money for Torres' legal costs, said the young man was a toddler when his relatives brought him from Mexico in search of a better future. She said his parents had long since returned to Mexico, leaving him alone in the U.S., and he had lived with her family throughout high school.
"People like Thomas are needed in this country," Rodriguez wrote on the fundraising site. "He's a hardworking young man willing to better his future."
Students from Desert View High School sit by a banner after marching to the Pima County Sheriff's Department on Monday, May 6, 2019 in Tucson, Ariz. to protest the detention of their classmate, Thomas Torres, who was stopped by a sheriff's deputy on May 2 and was detained until Border Patrol arrived. (Mamta PopatArizona Daily Star via AP)
Torres played on the Desert View High School football team and regularly worked several jobs, including busing tables at a restaurant and yardwork, friends said.
Although deportation proceedings involving high school students who have reached adulthood are not uncommon, the outpouring of support from Torres' classmates seemed unusual. A large portion of the population in Tucson's southern district, where the school is located, is Mexican-American.
Torres' classmates marched about 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) from the school to the sheriff's office to demand his release. They also called on all law enforcement agencies to not collaborate with immigration authorities.
"Thomas is the American Dream," said one of the many homemade signs carried by students protesting outside the sheriff's office. Other signs read, "Abolish the Border Patrol" and "Without Justice, There is No Peace."
Torres was taken into custody Thursday after a traffic stop by sheriff's deputies and turned over to Border Patrol, said Victor Mercado, a spokesman for the Sunnyside Unified High School District.
Border Patrol spokeswoman Meredith Mingledorff confirmed Monday that Torres is in federal custody and faces immigration charges after the agency was contacted by the Pima County Sheriff's Office.
Rodriguez said Torres told her family that he was unable to produce a driver's license when he was stopped by sheriff's deputies. Arizona does not issue licenses to people who are in the county without authorization.
The sheriff's office said Monday that a deputy stopped the car Torres was driving to check whether the insurance was up to date. The agency said in a news release that when Torres didn't produce a license he told authorities he was in the country illegally and the deputy contacted the Border Patrol.
There was no information on where Torres was when he was stopped.
A federal judge ruled in the 1990s that the Border Patrol violated the civil rights of Hispanic students and staff at an El Paso, Texas, high school by stopping them at the school without good cause to determine their citizenship. Bowie High School is just a few yards from the U.S.-Mexico border.
TOKYO (AP) — The American envoy to the United Nations called Friday for countries armed with atomic weapons to pursue nuclear disarmament as she visited the atomic bomb museum in Nagasaki, Japan.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who became the first U.S. cabinet member to visit Nagasaki, stressed the importance of dialogue and diplomacy amid a growing nuclear threat in the region.
“We must continue to work together to create an environment for nuclear disarmament. We must continue to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons in every corner of the world,” she said after a tour of the atomic bomb museum.
“For those of us who already have those weapons, we must pursue arms control. We can and must work to ensure that Nagasaki is the last place to ever experience the horror of nuclear weapons,” she added, standing in front of colorful hanging origami cranes, a symbol of peace.
The United States dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, destroying the city and killing 140,000 people. A second attack three days later on Nagasaki killed 70,000 more people. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II and its nearly half-century of aggression in Asia.
Nagasaki Gov. Kengo Oishi said in a statement that he believed Thomas-Greenfield's visit and her first-person experience at the museum “will be a strong message in promoting momentum of nuclear disarmament for the international society at a time the world faces a severe environment surrounding atomic weapons.”
Oishi said he conveyed to the ambassador the increasingly important role of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in emphasizing the need of nuclear disarmament.
Thomas-Greenfield's visit to Japan comes on the heels of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's official visit to the United States last week and is aimed at deepening Washington's trilateral ties with Tokyo and Seoul. During her visit to South Korea earlier this week, she held talks with South Korean officials, met with defectors from North Korea and visited the demilitarized zone.
The ambassador said the United States is looking into setting up a new mechanism for monitoring North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Russia and China have thwarted U.S.-led efforts to step up U.N. sanctions on North Korea over its ballistic missile testing since 2022, underscoring a deepening divide between permanent Security Council members over Russia’s war on Ukraine.
She said it would be “optimal” to launch the new system next month, though it is uncertain if that is possible.
The U.N. Security Council established a committee to monitor sanctions, and the mandate for its panel of experts to investigate violations had been renewed for 14 years until last month, when Russia vetoed another renewal.
In its most recent report, the panel of experts said it is investigating 58 suspected North Korean cyberattacks between 2017 and 2023 valued at approximately $3 billion, with the money reportedly being used to help fund its weapons development.
The United States, Japan and South Korea have been deepening security ties amid growing tension in the region from North Korea and China.
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, shake hands during a meeting Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, shake hands during a meeting Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, right, speaks to Rahm Emanuel, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, second right, as they wait for a meeting with Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Rahm Emanuel, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, right, walk to meet Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, talk prior to a meeting Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, prepare to talk during a meeting Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
