KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — A man who was deported despite a federal judge’s order that he remain in the country after he was detained by immigration authorities in Knoxville is back in the United States, but the event has shaken his community.
6 News spoke with a family friend of Diego Hernandez Garcia, who was detained by immigration authorities in Knoxville and deported to El Salvador, despite being approved for special immigrant juvenile status in 2022. His attorneys say he has since been returned to the United States but is in ICE custody in Louisiana and away from his family in East Tennessee for the holidays.
After deportation despite judge’s order, man detained in Knoxville now back in US
“This whole situation has flipped our family life upside down. It has deeply affected our community,” said Raquel Roy.
Raquel Roy is Diego’s former teacher at Maryville High School and a family friend who now has custody of his nephews. When she that learned Diego had been put on a plane to El Salvador on Tuesday she was devastated.“We were completely shocked. It was I’m not usually speechless. And I was speechless and then completely angry. Sad as well, trying to figure out how I was going to even explain the situation to the rest of the family,” explained Roy.Roy shared that she briefly spoke with Diego on the phone after his return to the U.S.“It was good to hear his voice, because we know that’s the right thing to do under the law. But there was there’s also frustration because he’s going to be sitting in a jail cell over Christmas and why he’s being punished for stuff he didn’t do in the first place is really upsetting,” said Roy. “He is just so confused. He’s really confused and frustrated that he feels like his voice didn’t matter when he was trying to tell people that he was supposed to stay in the United States,” she added.
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Roy said she hopes the legal process moving forward will protect him.“I think that America was founded on this amazing legal process that we have and throughout this whole situation in the last two weeks, we have felt like the Department of Homeland Security and Ice has just kind of pretended like that didn’t exactly matter and so I am relieved that the legal process is going to continue,” explained Roy6 News has reached out to ICE for comment. At this time, we have yet to hear back…