ICE puts graduation dream on hold

Community circles wagons after a teen is detained days before his senior year

- Brittny Mejia

BENJAMIN Guerrero Cruz, 18, was detained while walking his dog in the San Fernando Valley in August.

The baby-faced teen called his mom for the fourth time that November day. He was homesick, but he wanted her to know he was OK.

Benjamin Guerrero Cruz had recently turned 18, and he was farther from his mother and younger siblings than he'd ever been before.

But he wasn't off at college or starting a new job. He was calling from San Bernardino County, where he'd been held in an immigration detention center for months.

"You have to be strong," he consoled his mother.

In August, days before Benjamin was set to start his senior year at Reseda Charter High School, masked agents surrounded him as he walked his family's puppy, Athena. He said they did not identify themselves.

He was still wearing what he slept in - black shorts and a T-shirt - when the agents arrested him, he told The Times in his first interview with a news outlet since his ordeal began.

"I didn't know who they were, I didn't know what they wanted," he said. "But they handcuffed me and left me wondering: 'What did I do?' "

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said that Benjamin, a Chilean national, overstayed his visa by more than two years. She said Border Patrol agents arrested Benjamin and placed him into the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement pending removal.

The teenager had fled his home country to seek asylum in the U.S. becaus threats of violence, according to the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, which is representing Benjamin in his immigration case and argued for his release in federal court.

Benjamin is among more than 10,000 undocumented immigrants who have been arrested in the L.A. area since raids began in June, according to the Department of Homeland Security.