ICE detains a Russian immigrant who was studying high school in Texas with an expired visa
Immigration detentions by ICE include an 18-year-old Russian student who along with his family requested asylum while living in Texas
During an operation carried out at Hobby Airport, located seven miles from downtown Houston, Texas, personnel from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) detained Alim Garipov, a Russian high school student with an expired visa.
The 18-year-old immigrant moved with his family to the United States from Baltasi, a settlement in south-central Russia, in 2022.
Since then, he had requested asylum and while waiting for a response from the US government he attended Bellaire High School, a recognized public institution in Bellaire, Texas, belonging to the Houston Independent School District (HISD).
In an interview with KHOU 11, a local television station, Ann Linsley, a teacher at Bellaire School, mentioned receiving an email from Garipov's aunt around 11:30 p.m. m. on Friday, where he informed him that he had been detained by ICE and then transferred to an ICE center located in the city of Conroe.
Although Garipov's parents and his younger sister were with him when he was detained, none of them were taken into the custody of the authorities.
Apparently, the Russian immigrant was returning to the city after attending a one-week program at Harvard, because since he is in his last year of high school, he is analyzing options to attend university through a scholarship.
Elizabeth Ann Fletcher, lawyer and Democratic representative for the 7th congressional district of Texas, has taken on the task of approaching the family of the Russian student to provide them with legal advice.
The 51-year-old congresswoman describes the young man detained by ICE as one of the best students at Bellaire High School, to the point of having taught himself English and computer programming.
To this must be added that he is listed as one of the captains of his school's swimming team and also holds the position of president of the Russian Students Association.
With the arrest of Alim Garipov, the atmosphere in Texas became even more heated, since 11 days earlier an ICE agent shot and killed Mexican immigrant Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, in an incident in the Magnolia Park neighborhood of Houston.