By Evaristo Lara
During an operation carried out at the Ardor airport, located seven miles from downtown Houston, Texas, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel 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.
He had since requested asylum and while waiting for a response from the US government assistIa to Bellaire Excessive College, a renowned public institution in Bellaire, Texas, belonging to the Houston Independent School District (HISD).).
In an interview granted to KHOU 11local television channel, Ann Linsley, a teacher at the Bellaire school, mentioned having received an email from Garipov’s aunt around 11:30 pm on Friday, informing her 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 upright advice.
The 51-year-old congresswoman lists the young man detained by ICE as one of the best students at Bellaire Excessive College, to the point of having taught himself English and computer programming.
To this it must be added that figure as one of the captains of the swimming team his school 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.
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