The mother of a Chicago Public Schools student who’s been detained by the federal government for two months asked the government to have “compassion” and release him while their immigration cases unfold.
“Please have compassion on my son and our situation,” said Martha Liliana Navarette, the mother of Mather High School senior Ricardo Hernández-Navarette, in an interview Thursday with the Tribune. “Please free my son.”
Navarette and her son were arrested in mid-March by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at a routine check-in for the family’s asylum case.
Originally from Colombia, Ricardo and his mother came to the United States in 2022, when he was 15 years old. She filed for asylum and that petition remains pending, court records show.
Each of them was taken to Kentucky jails for detention, but the government separated them and is holding them in different facilities. For two months, the mother and son have had almost zero face-to-face contact, Ricardo previously told the Tribune in an interview from jail.
Navarette was released earlier this week after a federal judge in Kentucky ruled that she and other immigrants arrested and held without bond should be freed.
In response to the judge’s ruling, Navarette said she feels good, “but I miss my son.”
In the interview with Tribune, Ricardo had said: “I miss my mother.”
The teen has a bond hearing next Tuesday morning, where a judge may determine if he should be released.
Navarette described her son as a “responsible young man, well-behaved, focused, decisive, with good intentions.”
Before being arrested, Navarette said, she was working at a McDonald’s and providing care for senior citizens. She said their goal is to reunite and support each other as Ricardo pursues a program at a local community college and continues playing soccer.
Ricardo’s soccer coach said he is a well-liked member of the community who plays soccer with iProSkills Academy, where he is a valued contributor. Mather’s soccer team Instagram account said he has committed to play for the Truman College soccer team in the fall.
Since President Donald Trump took office, his administration has sought to expand the number of immigrants subject to mandatory detention. The government has long used detention as a tool to pressure immigrants into voluntarily leaving the country.
Increased immigration enforcement over the past year has added strain for Chicago Public Schools students, who now balance their studies with concern about ICE agents roaming in their neighborhoods. Many parents of CPS students have been detained. But Ricardo is unique as a high school student taken into custody.
CPS said it does not track how many of its students, if any, have been detained.
