Support for Bronx Student Facing Deportation
Mayor Eric Adams is backing a Bronx high school student, a 16-year-old named Joel Camas, who was recently arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The city has officially submitted papers in support of his lawsuit for a stay of deportation.
Camas was taken into custody during a regular immigration check on October 23. He may be sent back to Ecuador in 2022 to avoid gang threats, based on documents presented in a Manhattan federal court.
The Adams administration argues that as a teenager attending public school, Camas deserves access to education and city services while his immigration status is sorted out. This was highlighted in a proposal filed on Monday.
In his statement, Adams called Camas a “hard-working student” committed to his education and noted that he has adhered to the correct immigration process. He expressed pride in supporting Camas’s petition, pointing out that many similar students in New York City find themselves in similar situations during immigration proceedings.
Since his arrest, Camas has been held at a youth detention facility run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the Bronx. Reports indicate that Camas was fleeing gang-related threats when he arrived in the U.S.
Muriel Goode Trufant, the city’s chief lawyer, stated that there’s no justification for keeping Camas in custody, emphasizing he poses no flight or safety risk. She criticized the previous administration for not meeting high standards in handling cases like his, asserting that it would be more beneficial for him to stay within his community with family.
On the other hand, federal officials insist that deportation is necessary. They mentioned a desire to reunite Camas with his mother upon his return to Ecuador.
U.S. attorney Jay Clayton has requested that Camas remain in custody until the conclusion of his trial. According to the lawsuit, Camas and his mother came to the U.S. from Ecuador in December 2022, but she left earlier this year, leaving him with relatives to seek a better future.
After losing their asylum case in 2024, both Camas and his mother appeared without legal representation and have since faced removal orders.
As a senior at Gotham Collaborative High School, Camas boasts a perfect attendance record, according to the city’s supportive court documents. His teachers described him as eager to learn, even declining materials in Spanish in favor of English.
Since the Trump administration began, approximately 50 minors under 18 have been detained by ICE in the New York City area, bringing attention to cases like Camas’s.
