L.A. high school student confirmed to be in custody of federal immigration officials

Days after reports that a rising high school senior in L.A. was taken by federal immigration agents, an official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed to KTLA that the teen is in custody.  

Social media posts and a fundraiser set up to help the family of the young man, Benjamin Marcelo Guerrero-Cruz, indicate he was walking his dog on Aug. 8 – just days after his 18^th

birthday and right before he was due to start his senior year at Reseda High School – when masked immigration agents took him into custody.  

The posts stated that Benjamin’s family – including his mother, five-month-old twin brothers and another six-year-old brother – was waiting for him to return with the dog, but he never did.  

The family, per the posts, was unable to get information on his whereabouts after he was taken into custody. On Aug. 9, a GoFundMe was started to help them with legal expenses and other costs; an update posted the next day elaborated that Benjamin was “cramped in a holding cell with about 50 others, without access to basic hygiene, warmth, or adequate food.”

“He has only water, and since being detained, he has not had proper access to a bathroom, there are just two toilets for everyone to share. He is cold, scared, and one of the youngest there,” the update said.

On Wednesday morning, a senior official with the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement to KTLA that he was in their custody “pending removal.”

“Benjamin Guerrero-Cruz, an illegal alien from Chile, overstayed his visa by more than two years, abusing the Visa Waiver Program under which he entered the United States, which required him to depart the United States on March 15, 2023,” the statement read. 

“The United States is offering illegal aliens $1,000 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,” the statement continued. “If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.”