Roosevelt High School student Gendri Yovani Ortiz Paredes detained by ICE
A Roosevelt High School senior has been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency confirmed. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
A second Roosevelt High School student has been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and now faces deportation, according to the federal agency.
Gendri Yovani Ortiz Paredes, an 18-year-old senior, was arrested two weeks ago by the Nassau County Police Department's “designated immigration officers” and charged with petit larceny, an ICE spokesperson wrote in a statement Monday.
Petit larceny is a misdemeanor in New York.
It was unclear if the Guatemalan native was represented by a lawyer. He is in ICE custody at the upstate Broome County jail pending "removal proceedings," according to the agency.
Roosevelt schools Superintendent Shawn Wightman wrote in a statement Monday: “Gendri has been a respectful and dedicated member of our school community, and we are hopeful that he will be given the opportunity to complete his high school education. Every young person deserves the chance to learn from mistakes and grow into a responsible, contributing member of society.”
For him and other educators in the district, he wrote, the focus “remains on the student’s well-being and right to complete his education.”
In its statement to Newsday, the ICE spokesperson wrote Ortiz Paredes “illegally entered the United States” in March 2024 and “should have been processed for expedited removal."
The circumstances around the teenager’s Oct. 25 arrest were not clear.
Nassau police did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
ICE said the agency took over his custody on the same day, after his arrest.
Under an agreement between Nassau County and ICE, the county assigned 10 Nassau police detectives to cross-embed with ICE, Newsday previously reported.
Ortiz Paredes has not been arraigned, according to Nicole Turso, a spokeswoman for the Nassau district attorney's office. He was given a desk appearance ticket "returnable for 11/12," she wrote in an email Monday.
Theo Liebmann, a professor at Hofstra Law School in Hempstead, noted that the student was accused — not convicted — of committing a crime.
“Can we agree that that should have to be proven first?” he said.
He noted, “It certainly is not what our system of justice is supposed to be about when we say: ‘Well, just an accusation is enough to make you face consequences.’ ... And the consequences for many of these young people who are being put in detention is extremely dire.”
Earlier this year, another Roosevelt High School student, Alvaro Castro Velasquez, was detained by ICE weeks before his graduation. According to his attorney, he had no criminal record.
Castro Velasquez, now 20, had been granted "Special Immigrant Juvenile” status and deferred action that had shielded him from deportation, before President Donald Trump initiated what he has said would be the largest illegal immigration crackdown in U.S. history. Castro Velasquez agreed to take voluntary departure in September and is in Guatemala, where he was born, according to Wightman.
Dandan Zou covers education for Newsday. Previously, she worked for a community newspaper in Maryland and a personal finance magazine in Washington, D.C.
