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By Joshua Rhett Miller and Amanda Castro
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Four years after Elder Chavez-Carranza fled Honduras in pursuit of a better life in the United States, the 18-year-old student is likely facing deportation following a traffic stop in Alabama.
Chavez-Carranza, who lived with his sister in Albertville, has been held by federal authorities since his arrest in late December for allegedly speeding and driving without a license. Despite having special immigrant juvenile (SIJ) status, which allows unaccompanied minors to apply for lawful permanent residency due to abuse, neglect or abandonment, the high school junior who has spent more than 218 days in detention has a decidedly uncertain future, relatives and advocates told Newsweek.
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"My brother is not a criminal," Mayuri Chavez told Newsweek in Spanish during an interview Wednesday. "He followed every rule, went to every court, did everything the government asked — and none of it mattered. They ignored his permission and took him anyway.”
Chavez, 26, said her younger brother has deteriorated mentally and physically throughout his detention, often hiding the worst details so she won't worry. But he has relayed experiences of going days without adequate amounts of food or being denied necessary dental care, she said.
"He feels betrayed," Chavez said while referencing her brother's SIJ status. "All the effort we made to do things right was useless. We’re just fighting to get him out so he could finish his studies and be someone in life."
An Alabama state trooper stopped Chavez-Carranza on December 30 in Albertville, where he received citations for speeding and not having a driver's license. The trooper also contacted Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials who verified Chavez-Carranza had been in the U.S. illegally, leading to his detainment, state police confirmed to Newsweek.
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Chavez-Carranza's attorney, Dalaney Mecham, said immigration officials started removal proceedings following the December 30 traffic stop. A judge later found him to be eligible to be deported, an order he's currently appealing. A briefing on the proceeding had yet to be scheduled, Mecham said Wednesday.
Mecham said Congress created the SIJ classification to protect young migrants who are abused, abandoned or neglected by one or both parents so long as they have a legal custodian in the United States and a family court judge rules that local residency represents the best interest of the child.
"Unfortunately, it's not an actual status," Mecham said, noting that the classification solely permits applicants to apply for a green card.
Congress established the classification in the Immigration Act of 1990 and created a cap on the number of available green cards through the program at a time when migration patterns were vastly different. But as the number of petitions grew over the years, an immense backlog of cases has accrued, Mecham said.
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In March, Chavez-Carranza applied for deferred action, which will protect him from deportation if ultimately granted, Mecham said.
"The problem with that is they have required him to do fingerprints, allegedly, for a background check before they can approve the deferred action," Mecham said. "They keep giving him notices to appear for his fingerprints in Birmingham, but he's detained. So, he's missed his last three appointments for fingerprints."
Mecham accused the federal government of "pulling the rug out" from beneath his client as he seeks lawful permanent U.S. residency.
"Who benefits from this?" Mecham added. "Where is the benefit to society, to anyone? The government, you know, provided a legal pathway, so what are we accomplishing? Why are we doing this? He's a high school student."
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Andy Yarnell, senior pastor at Mosaic Church in Gadsden, Alabama, visited Chavez-Carranza at the Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana over two days late last month. The teen spoke about video games and the World Cup during the initial session on July 21, Yarnell said.
"The first day, you know, you could see some sadness in his eyes, but we joked around a lot about things a normal teenager would talk about," Yarnell told Newsweek during an interview Tuesday. "The second day though, he was a lot more discouraged because he knew that we were not going to be visiting anymore, that we had to go back to Alabama."
Chavez-Carranza detailed cramped living conditions in the facility and recalled how he missed his family, friends and classmates at Asbury High School in Albertville, Yarnell said.
"Which is all horrible," he said. "I mean, he missed half of a year of school last year and all the normal things that a kid should do — he missed the school dance, he missed all that stuff."
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Compounding his troubles, Chavez-Carranza is undoubtedly lagging behind other high school students during his ongoing confinement, Yarnell said.
"He's missing out on all those classes, just getting really behind in school," the pastor added.
Chavez-Carranza also wears orthodontic braces, which have not been properly maintained since his arrest, Yarnell said.
“He had to use the cross on his rosary to fix his braces," he said. "They won’t check on his teeth, which is crazy."
Chavez-Carranza works as a painter at the facility and earns just $1 per day, Yarnell said. He also sleeps in a room with 54 other men, the majority of whom are significantly older than the high school junior, Yarnell said.
"I think this is child abuse," he said. "He’s not getting proper medical care for his braces, he’s making one dollar a day and we are not giving him the education that he needs. So yeah, I would call that child abuse — it’s horrible."
Yarnell said he left the facility on July 22 feeling like an "angry parent" rather than a pastor.
"I was worried for his safety, so I asked him some questions," Yarnell said. "But he expressed that most of the men in there really look out for him. Some of them have kids his age or a nephew his age, so you know, they all kind of take care of him. And they take care of each other there."
Department of Homeland Security officials confirmed Chavez-Carranza's detention late Tuesday.
"On December 30, 2025, ICE arrested Elder Nain Chavez-Carranza, an illegal alien from Honduras," a DHS spokesperson told Newsweek in a statement. "He illegally entered the United States via the southern border on February 2, 2022, under the Biden administration. Chavez-Carranza will remain in ICE custody pending his immigration proceedings. He will receive full due process."
But SIJ classification does not confer lawful status, DHS officials reiterated.
"Being in detention is a choice," the agency's statement continued. "We encourage all illegal aliens to take control of their departure with the CBP Home App. The United States is offering illegal aliens $2,600 and a free flight to self-deport now. We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live the American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return."
Unaccompanied minors living in the United States like Chavez-Carranza are currently being detained and removed by immigration authorities at a rate roughly three times higher than during the final years of President Donald Trump's first term, ProPublica reported last month, citing an analysis of Immigration and Customs Enforcement data.
Court data also indicates immigration judges have issued more than 10,000 removal and voluntary departure orders each month for juveniles who either migrated alone or with relatives — or nearly four times more than during Trump's first presidency, the outlet reported.
"I’m just waiting here," Chavez-Carranza told ProPublica during a video call from Winn Correctional Center. "I really don't know what's going to happen to me."
Chavez-Carranza told the outlet he's worried about not being able to graduate high school and lamented missing the birth of his nephew.
"I had so many plans, but now everything is ruined," he said.
Advocates gathered in support of Chavez-Carranza late Wednesday at churches in Alabama and Pennsylvania, where they insisted he should be preparing for his senior year of high school.
"Instead, he's been stuck in ICE detention for 200+ days," organizers wrote ahead of the events.
An online fundraiser for Chavez-Carranza has also garnered more than $7,400 as of late Wednesday.
"Elder is the kind of human we need in this country," the site reads. "His community in Albertville hopes he can return to Alabama promptly, where he can complete his education."
Carmen Bahena, Elder’s former English teacher, said his detention has devastated both his education and tight‑knit group of classmates who considered him family.
"Everybody loves Elder," Bahena told Newsweek. "He worked hard, he helped other students, he was doing everything right — and now he's half a year behind, stuck in a place where he can't learn."
Bahena said some students have gotten emotional watching videos of Elder from detention, with intense fear that they could be next.
"For them, Elder made this real," she said. "They miss him, and they’re scared."
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Jason Lemon and Gray R. Thomas
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