High School Students Fight to Save Classmate From Deportation

High school can be an exciting time for a teen. But it can also be loaded with drama. With stress about exams, college, peer pressure, the last thing a student should be thinking about is being deported from the only home they know. That’s exactly what high school senior Thomas Torres is dealing with right now.

The teen student at Desert View High School was expecting to graduate on May 22 along with his classmates, but now that’s probably not going to happen because he has a court appearance on that same day. On May 6, his friends, advocates, and classmates, held a demonstration in Pheonix, Arizona, on his behalf demanding that he is allowed to graduate. They held signs that read “Thomas is the American Dream,” “Abolish the Border Patrol,” and “Without Justice, There is No Peace,” according to the Associated Press. He is currently being held at the Casa Grande detention center in Arizona.

“Thomas Torres is a long time family friend whom I’ve been honored to know for the past four years here in Tucson, Arizona,” Lorena Rodriguez wrote on the GoFundme page that she launched for her friend. “He moved here from Mexico when he was young, along with his mother and two younger sisters to seek a better future and education. He’s been attending Desert View High School for the past four years, engaged in school and sports throughout the years. He’s also worked at restaurants bussing and cleaning tables, doing yard work and finding side jobs; no job is ever too small or big for him.”

According to media reports, Torres, who is also part of the Desert View High School football team, was allegedly pulled over randomly because a deputy wanted to see if the driver had proper insurance for the vehicle. While we have never heard of being pulled over for such reasons as wanting random proof of insurance, we know it has happened to others and that’s what happened with Torres. It just seems a little odd that he was signaled out randomly. The teen told the deputy that he didn’t have a license because he was undocumented and that is when the deputy turned him over to Border Patrol.

“People like Thomas are needed in this country,” Rodriguez wrote. “He’s a hardworking young man and willing to better his future.”

If you’re interested in contributing to his Gofundme and support the student with his legal bills, click here.