Immigration Agents Arrest Ossining High School Student

Federal Immigration officials arrested an Ossining high school senior Thursday morning on what was supposed to be the day of his prom.

Diego Ismael Puma Macancela was tracked down at the home of his relatives. His 21-year-old cousin, Gabriela Macanela, said Diego had spent the night with her family since his mother had been detained a day earlier. 

She said immigration agents pounded on the door at 7:30 a.m. Afraid that the rest of the family would be arrested, she said, Diego turned himself in.

"He was doing it for us," she said. "He didn't want us to be taken away."

A spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Rachael Young Yow, said in a statement the arrest was "pursuant to a final order of removal issued by an immigration judge Nov. 16, 2016."

The agency said both Diego and his mother, Rosa Ines Macancela Vazquez, were in custody pending removal from the country.

Gabriela Macancela said Diego's parents were living in New York when, in 2014, his mother traveled to South America to bring her son to New York. On the return trip north, the mother and son were detained in Texas. They were later released pending court hearings, which they both lost last November. 

She said the mother and son are at two different detention centers, in New Jersey and New York. She said she hopes Diego will be given more time given because he's still a student, and was planning to stay an extra year to take a mechanics class.

"All the family we just want him to finish high school," she said. "We just want that one year to finish high school and he can go back to Ecuador."

She said Diego wanted to move to the United States because he was concerned about gangs in Ecuador.

Westchester immigration advocates have started a petition to help the family. Luis Yumbla of the Hudson Valley Community Coalition said the teen should not have been detained so swiftly after losing his case, and should have been given time to appeal.  

"He is a young student. He is hard-working," he said. "He has two jobs to help the family, to help himself, and he doesn't have any previous criminal record or arrests."

A spokeswoman for the New York Immigration Coalition, Siobhan Dingwall, called the teen's arrest "a clear example of [President Donald] Trump’s frightening and senseless immigration policy in action."

Although thousands of youth were facing removal and deportation under the Obama administration, she said there was a much greater exercise of discretion by immigration agents.

The Westchester group Neighbors Link said it is assisting the family and exploring legal options. 

Meanwhile, Ossining Mayor Victoria Gearity said she feared the arrest would have a negative impact on local immigrants.

"Incidents like what we saw happen this week actually undermine efforts of local law enforcement to build positive relationships with the immigrant community," she said. "That jeopardizes the safety of the whole community,"

She disputed a statement from federal authorities that said local Ossining police received prior notification that agents would be conducting targeted enforcement actions.

Updated June 12, 2017, 11:15 a.m.: This article was corrected to say that Diego Ismael Puma Mancancela is a senior, not a junior. The name of his cousin, Garbriela, also was corrected. Her last name is Mancancela, not Mancanela.