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Jul 24, 2019 - Politics & Policy

American teenager freed by ICE after 26 days in immigration detention

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Francisco Erwin Galicia left a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Pearsall, Texas

Francisco Galicia hugs his lawyer after being freed from a dentention center in Pearsall, Texas. Photo: Kin Man Hui/The San Antonio Express-News via AP

Francisco Erwin Galicia, a Dallas-born 18-year-old American citizen, was released from immigration custody on Tuesday after being detained for 26 days, reports the Dallas News, which first brought his plight to attention.

Details: He left an ICE detention center in Pearsall, Texas, after being transferred there following 3 weeks in a Border Patrol facility, per AP. Galicia, who's from the border city of Edinburg, Texas, was stopped with his Mexico-born brother Marlon Galicia, 17, and friends at a checkpoint and detained despite having a state ID, the New York Times notes.

  • His brother was freed after signing papers agreeing to effectively self-deport and is staying with relatives in Reynosa, Mexico, the NYT said.

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