BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Over 100 people came out June 25 in this south-central Kentucky manufacturing center to welcome home 18-year-old Ernesto Manuel-Andres after he was released from detention in Louisiana by immigration authorities. The predominantly U.S.-born crowd cheered as Manuel-Andres walked in. They carried signs and a banner that said “Welcome Home,” some wore T-shirts saying “Free Ernesto.”
Manuel-Andres, who is originally from Guatemala and has been in the U.S. since 2022, was arrested and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents June 4. He was charged with entering the country illegally, even though he has Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, a legal protection granted to undocumented children who have been abused or neglected by their parents.
Even with this status, Manuel-Andres was stuck on an ever-growing waiting list for an available visa, which would allow him to apply for a green card. The court order did allow him to stay in the country while awaiting the visa.
But as of June 6, the Department of Homeland Security rescinded its policy of granting deferred action to special immigrant juveniles who did not yet have a visa.
Gabriel Spellberg, one of the youth’s lawyers, said this put Manuel-Andres and others like him in a Catch-22 situation. If they leave the U.S., they’ll automatically lose this status. But without a visa, they’re liable to be detained and face deportation.
In an attempt to demoralize and disorient Manuel-Andres, and prevent his supporters from finding him, ICE moved him three times, first to Grayson County, then to Laurel County, and then to Monroe, Louisiana.
A fight is launched
His friends, neighbors, teachers and classmates, as well as a growing number of community organizations and churches, came together to organize to fight for his freedom. They held protests and vigils at local churches and wrote letters to public officials.
Warren County is not recognized as a particularly liberal area. In 2024, 61% of residents voted for Donald Trump. Bowling Green is known as “Vette City,” where the only GM Corvette assembly plant in the world is located.
The teenager is a recent graduate of the Teranga Academy, a school for immigrants run by the Fugees Family that provides education in English and other subjects for refugees and other immigrants. Luma Mufleh, director of the school, and former Teranga Academy principal Kristi Costellow helped lead the fight.
Members drove to Louisiana to visit him in the detention center and set up a GoFundMe page to raise money to pay for his release on bond. On June 24 Manuel-Andres posted a $1,500 bond and was released, but his fight isn’t over. He could be detained again if he is still without a visa and the bond is repealed.
“The community played a huge role in getting the government to return Ernesto,” Evelina Gevorgiyan, program director at the International Center of Kentucky, told this Militant correspondent July 16. “It shows what is possible when we fight.”
The center has been helping immigrants settle in Kentucky since 2002. They’ve found housing, jobs and transportation for hundreds of immigrant workers here from the Congo, Thailand, Myanmar, Cuba, Afghanistan and other countries. With new restrictions by the Donald Trump administration, Gevorgiyan said, “we’ve had no new arrivals from out of the country lately. But we have many people moving here from other cities within the U.S. because they heard it’s a place welcoming to immigrants.”
“The community of Bowling Green looked at Ernesto, a resident of our community, and said ‘he’s ours,’” Costellow told the celebration. “I’m thankful to be in Bowling Green,” she said, “a community where people will see something that’s wrong and they will keep at it until it’s made right.”
In the past few months, we’ve seen “people taken out of their homes, out of the streets, when they have every legal right to be here, just like Ernesto,” Mufleh told the crowd. “But the difference is you spoke up for what was right, you said, ‘Not in this town, not in our community, and not on our watch.’”
Within the past 24 hours, Mufleh said, six other families had reached out about relatives or loved ones who have gone missing. “This is bigger than just Ernesto.”
The fight to bring Manuel-Andres home was well-known among working people here. When I knocked on doors, almost everyone I spoke to knew about the fight and supported it. “We’re so glad he’s home!” said FedEx worker Sarah Nobles, who came to the door on crutches after an on-the-job injury.
“Thank you for being here,” Manuel-Andres told the crowd welcoming him back, “I’m happy to be at my house again in Kentucky.”