Demanding justice for Dylan

On Wednesday, May 28, I stood outside the Tweed Courthouse in Lower Manhattan to demand justice for Dylan Contreras — a 20-year-old Bronx student at ELLIS Preparatory High School in my district who was detained by ICE at a federal courthouse just moments after a judge dismissed his case. 

Dylan came here legally and enrolled at ELLIS Prep — a school built for older newcomer students, on a campus where I once taught — determined to graduate and attend college. He was also working to help support his family. But ICE didn’t just detain Dylan. They transferred him across state lines, cutting him off from his family, his lawyers and his community. 

After more than four months in a Pennsylvania detention center, Dylan and his family received the devastating news that a judge had ordered his deportation - a decision that strips him of due process and exposes the cruelty of a federal immigration system that punishes even those who followed every rule. I stood with more than a hundred people at a rally in Riverdale on Saturday, Sept. 27 — including ELLIS Principal Norma Vega -— to demand justice for Dylan. Most of us have never met him, and we may never get the chance. 

But the sight of neighbors coming together, raising their voices for his return, gives me strength. As long as immigrant families live under the threat of ICE and in a climate of fear, our community cannot truly be at peace. I urge every ally to keep speaking out and making their voices heard. 

And to those who support President Trump’s immigration policies: ask yourself — when you backed him, did you really believe it meant tearing high school students from their classrooms, or ripping young people with jobs away from their families? 

Did you believe it meant deporting young men who followed the rules, worked legally and helped their parents pay rent? If not, then you cannot stay silent now. Loyalty to a politician or party should never outweigh loyalty to what is right. Silence in the face of cruelty is complicity. 

Dylan was doing everything we ask of our young people: balancing work and school, pursuing his dreams, striving for a better life for his family. He followed the rules, complied with every court order, and still President Trump has chosen to tear him from his family, his school, his community and his future. No parent should endure the terror of not knowing when their child will come home — or the heartbreak of knowing their child may never come home at all. 

I am angry. I am heartbroken. And I am resolute. I will not stop fighting — for Dylan, for his family and for every immigrant targeted by ICE’s predatory tactics.

Councilmember Eric Dinwotiz