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Maykol Bogoya-Duarte, the Detroit teen whose detention by federal immigration authorities last month caused an outcry and led to calls for his release, has been deported, his attorney said Friday morning.
Attorney Ruby Robinson said he learned late Thursday night from Maykol’s mother, in an 11:15 p.m. voicemail, that the teen was back in his home country of Colombia.
Robinson said he hadn’t yet spoken with Maykol, but hoped to do so later Friday. He said the plan was for Maykol’s grandmother to meet him once he arrived in Colombia, but he wasn’t certain who greeted the teen at the airport.
Chalkbeat reached out to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to confirm the deportation, but did not get a response. His information is no longer available on ICE’s detainee locator.
Maykol, 18, was arrested on May 20 while he and a group of other newcomer boys attempted to join a field trip at Lake Erie Metropark, about 25 miles away from Detroit. Rockwood police stopped the teen for allegedly tailgating another car. Maykol did not have a driver’s license, only a City of Detroit identification card, Robinson has previously said.
His detention prompted advocacy from his teachers, fellow students, community members, and lawmakers who pleaded for Maykol to be allowed to remain in the country to finish high school. He was 3.5 credits shy of a high school diploma at Western International High School, where he was enrolled.
Thousands of people signed a petition earlier last week calling on the Detroit Public School Community District and lawmakers to condemn Maykol’s arrest.
Dozens of people spoke in support of the teen’s release for more than 2½ hours at the district’s school board meeting on June 10. Afterward, the board released a statement saying it wanted Maykol to be able to stay in the country to earn his diploma.
Maykol’s mother attended that school board meeting, though she didn’t speak. Robinson, senior managing attorney with the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, said the organization isn’t representing Maykol’s mother.
“But I would suspect she will try to return to Colombia at her own expense based on what she learned with Maykol’s month-long, taxpayer-funded, and entirely unnecessary and harmful detention.”
During the May 20 traffic stop that led to his detention, police officers could not communicate with him in Spanish and called Customs and Border Protection agents to translate.
Maykol, who came to the U.S. when he was 16, had already been going through a legal process to return to Colombia after receiving a final order of deportation in 2024. He was working with immigration officials and the Colombian Consulate to obtain the documentation he needed to fly out of the country with his mother.
While he made those arrangements, Maykol planned to finish high school in Detroit.
Hannah Dellinger contributed to this report.
Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
