ICE Held an NYC Child Incommunicado at Secret Hotels, Then Deported Him

The case of a 7-year-old detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents sparked indignation across New York City. The child, however, is not the first New York youth caught up in President Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant dragnet. 

The Intercept has confirmed the identity of a 15-year-old Manhattan high school student deported to Ecuador after a secretive detention that involved days trapped inside hotels hundreds of miles away, while unable to contact the outside world.

The teen, Roger Iza, and his father, Edison Iza, were arrested by ICE at a check-in in New York on August 9 and, after being whisked to hotels in Louisiana then Texas, deported to Ecuador on August 14, the pair said by phone from Quito.

“We couldn’t call or go on the web to ask for help,” Roger said. “Without our phones, we didn’t know any names or phone numbers.”

“We couldn’t call or go on the web to ask for help.”

ICE’s latest published data, from June and July, indicates that 48 minors were arrested in New York City, some counties north of the city, and parts of Long Island during those months, and 32 of them had been deported by last week. But who those children are is frequently shrouded in mystery. Roger Iza’s is the first account from a minor deportee to emerge from the Trump administration’s crackdown on New York City.

Detention centers operated by ICE allow unlimited phone calls to anyone with the money to pay for them or make collect calls; they also allow for attorney calls. The case of the 7-year-old and her mother has been highly publicized and garnered efforts by immigration activists, political leaders, and school administrators to keep her in the U.S. 

Roger, however, was not in a detention center where it would have been relatively easy to communicate with the outside world. He was locked up with his father in a private hotel, with no ability to use the internet or phone to get attention to his case before it was too late. (ICE did not respond to questions for this story.)

As the immigration detention system is becoming more overcrowded, authorities are turning to hotels to house detainees. Earlier this month, The Intercept and Injustice Watch reported on the case of a mother and her infant son, a U.S. citizen, being locked incommunicado inside a Chicago Sonesta hotel for five days by ICE contractors. Roger, an immigrant minor himself, is the latest child known to have been detained by ICE in private hotels.

There may be many other such children.

Roger Iza, 15. Courtesy of Iza’s friend.

Snatched at ICE Check-in

Two years ago, Edison and Roger Iza traveled to the Mexican border and presented themselves to border agents in El Paso, Texas, to apply for asylum. They soon ended up in New York City, in a hotel near Times Square that was repurposed as a shelter for asylum seekers. The New York Department of Education enrolled Roger, who was 13 at the time, in a public middle school near Union Square, where he quickly made an impression.

“Most of the immigrant kids kept to themselves, but Roger wasn’t insular,” said a native-born classmate who grew close to Roger there and requested anonymity for privacy because he is a minor. “He was fascinated with America and really into being an American. For instance, if people pronounced his name like in Spanish, ‘Ro-hair,’ he would say ‘No!’ and demand that they pronounce it like in English.” 

Despite a language barrier, the two became good friends. They rented Citi Bikes and rode to Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. While Roger’s dad worked in construction, Roger spent time at his classmate’s apartment after school. 

“He was giggly, shy, and joyous,” the classmate’s mother recalled. “And so sweet and polite.”

After Roger completed middle school, he enrolled in the Manhattan Academy for Arts and Language, near the Empire State Building.

In October of last year, an immigration judge in Manhattan denied a joint petition for asylum submitted by the Izas. They had filed it without a lawyer’s assistance because they could not afford counsel. Edison Iza said in an interview that he applied for asylum due to his inability to make a living in his home country because his business was constantly threatened by extortionists. Their attempt to appeal also failed.

In July, the Izas said, they were ordered to report to ICE for a check-in — a monitoring program requiring in-person attendance. The first meeting concluded without incident. Meanwhile, Roger attended a summer class at his high school, to raise a poor grade he’d gotten in math during the regular academic year. 

According to a document examined by The Intercept, however, he and his father were ordered to appear at another check-in on August 9 — and this time they were arrested. 

Edison, by phone from Quito, said, “It was so unexpected.”

“They Monitored Us”

Edison said that he and his son were taken to a holding area in a federal building in Manhattan, where their phones were seized. Roger recalled that within hours they were driven to LaGuardia Airport and put on a plane bound for Louisiana.

The Izas were taken to a Sheraton hotel in Alexandria, Louisiana, according to location information from Roger’s phone shared with The Intercept. The hotel is near a major ICE holding facility that serves as a deportation hub for Central and South America. (Neither the hotel nor Marriott International, Sheraton’s parent company, immediately responded to requests for comment.)

The father and son were told by security officers that they could make one call a day that could last for at most two minutes. They were ordered to speak in loud voices when they made the call, and not to disclose their location. 

“They monitored us,” Roger said. 

They made calls to Roger’s grandmother in New York. She said that Roger’s math teacher had called to ask why he wasn’t in class. 

“When my grandmother told her I was being deported,” Roger said, “the teacher said that I could get a lawyer, but I would have to be in New York for that.” 

The teacher may have been talking about the possibility of an attorney filing a habeas motion in a New York federal district court to free Roger. But he was no longer in New York, and he couldn’t contact his teacher.

After four days in the hotel, the Izas said they were flown to McAllen, Texas, and put into another hotel under the same conditions of isolation. Roger said they had no privacy. 

“The guards were with us day and night, and they wrote down everything we did, even when I went to the bathroom. We couldn’t leave the room. We couldn’t even look out the window.”

The Izas were put on an ICE deportation flight to Guayaquil, Ecuador, on August 14.

When the father and son landed in Guayaquil and were given back their phones, the first person Roger called was his American friend, who was shocked to hear what had happened.

“It’s hard for me to comprehend that I might never see him again,” the friend said.

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