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Federal immigration agents arrested two 16-year-old Detroit cousins at their home on Thursday. The teens are being held in Texas.
The cousins — born in Venezuela and arrived in the U.S. in 2023 — were taken into custody along with two of their parents when agents raided their home on the eastside in search of a different migrant.
Both teens are formally seeking asylum in the U.S. and had upcoming court dates. They have work permits and jobs at Chili’s, said Kristen Schoettle, a teacher at Western International High School who works with one of the teens in an English class for newcomers.
“She is an excellent student, really wants to learn English,” Schoettle said, adding that the teen sometimes shares recommendations for Spanish-language indie-rock music.
Outlier Media is not identifying the teens because their parents did not give consent.
Schoettle said her knowledge of the situation is based on conversations with her student’s mother, who had spoken with the teen’s father in detention.
Outlier confirmed that the father of one of the teens is being held at the South Texas Family Residential Center, a facility operated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, through the agency’s Online Detainee Locator System. Schoettle says the teens are there too, though the database does not provide information about minors in detention.
“We need all Detroiters to stand up against these kidnappings,” said Lindsey Matson, deputy director of youth organizing at 482Forward.
“If you care about education justice in the city, defending the rights of immigrant students who are dealing with fear and trauma is a first step. 482Forward and the [Detroit] People’s Assembly is calling on all Detroiters, including elected officials, to do all they can to get the immediate release of these young people and their family.”
Matson said students are organizing a press conference and rally at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday at Clark Park in Detroit.
The two cousins are at least the second and third Detroit students detained by federal immigration authorities this year. This spring, the arrest and deportation of Maykol Bogoya-Duarte, an 18-year-old student at Western, prompted protests.
The Trump administration is waging an aggressive campaign to deport as many immigrants as possible. To meet that goal, agents have broken with decades of precedent to target asylum seekers, often arresting them immediately after court hearings. Record numbers of people are being held in federal immigration detention facilities, three-quarters of whom have no criminal convictions.
Detentions of children, often lasting months, skyrocketed after President Donald Trump’s return to office.
Last week, immigration officials say two Ecuadorian migrants struck an agent during an arrest in metro Detroit. One escaped, but officers used a stun gun on the other. A video of officers shoving her limp body into their vehicle circulated widely on social media last week.
Youssef Fawaz, a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, linked the students’ arrests to the agency’s effort to track down the fleeing migrant.
“While executing a search warrant for an escaped fugitive Ecuadoran national who assaulted a Detroit Border Patrol Agent last week, agents encountered three Venezuelan aliens who were illegally present in the United States,” Fawaz said.
According to Schoettle, four Venezuelans were detained: the cousins along with one parent each. Fawaz acknowledged that “a fourth individual from Venezuela” was arrested later that day.
Fawaz did not directly confirm or deny whether the cousins were taken into custody.
The Trump administration’s crackdown has separated families and fueled fear in communities across the U.S. One sign of that climate is falling attendance at Detroit schools with large immigrant populations. Students at those schools missed an additional 4,900 days of class compared to schools with fewer immigrants over the months following Trump’s second inauguration, Outlier found.
The teens were not arrested at or near a school, but news of their arrest could deepen those fears and keep more students home unnecessarily, said Chrystal Wilson, a spokesperson at the Detroit Public Schools Community District. Research shows that every day of missed school undermines student learning.
The district does not work with ICE or share information with the agency, and its policy forbids staff from allowing immigration agents into schools without a warrant or subpoena.
“It’s crazy to be picking people up like this,” Schoettle said. “There was no arrest warrant for this family. … Now you’ve got kids in a detention center, and they’re just stuck there for I don’t know how long. It’s ridiculous.”
Koby Levin is a reporter for Outlier Media. You can reach him at koby@outliermedia.org.
Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.
