Why Should Delaware Care?
The arrest of a Seaford resident living with developmental disabilities by ICE sparked Gov. Matt Meyer to step in and call for his immediate release from detention. The Ecuadorian man is one of thousands of other immigrants who have been ordered detained while they fight their deportation.
Victor Acurio Suárez is ready to go home.
The 52 year-old Seaford resident has spent the past three months at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in central Pennsylvania. While in detention, Acurio Suárez regularly calls his younger brother, who has served as Acurio Suárez’s primary caretaker since they were teenagers.
But, Acurio Suárez doesn’t realize he’s in detention. He thinks he’s on vacation, according to his lawyer, Kaley Miller-Schaeffer, who recounted conversations Acurio Suárez has had with his brother while detained. After almost three months of holiday, however, Acurio Suárez is ready to come back home, he told his brother.
Acurio Suárez, originally from Ecuador, lives with aphasia and was born with developmental disabilities that limit his ability to communicate and live independently. He relies on his brother for full-time care taking.
“He is like my son to me,” Acurio Suárez’s brother wrote in a letter to the court. “I would like to ask for help so he is not deported.”
On Sept. 22, Acurio Suárez was arrested in a Seaford Lowe’s parking lot when he waved down an ICE agent in an apparent effort to try to find work, according to Miller-Schaeffer. As a result of a new Trump administration policy, he has remained in custody ever since.
On Tuesday, Gov. Matt Meyer sent a letter to the immigration judge overseeing Acurio Suárez’s asylum case, asking for him to be “immediately released” from detention. Meyer asked the judge to release Acurio Suárez and grant him asylum so he can remain safely with his family in Delaware.
Meyer underscored in his letter that Acurio Suárez has no criminal history and poses no threat to public safety. In an interview with Spotlight Delaware on Thursday, Meyer described Acurio Suarez’s arrest as “ridiculously egregious.”
“It’s unnecessarily cruel, and it’s fundamentally at odds with our values as a nation,” Meyer said.
And the Governor is not the only one calling for Acurio Suarez’s release. The Delaware Coalition of Immigrant Justice sponsored an online petition calling for Acurio Suarez to be granted humanitarian parole. The petition had garnered more than 1,000 signatures as of Dec. 23.
In Acurio Suarez’s case, Meyer stepped in at a critical juncture in the asylum process.
A now-postponed Thursday court hearing could have decided whether Acurio Suárez would be deported to Ecuador, or allowed to remain in the country.
A deportation order threatens to return Acurio Suárez to the gang that attacked him, left him for dead and set his house on fire – all in a country where he has no one waiting, and no one to care for him.
‘We only came here to move forward’
Acurio Suarez’s mother left Ecuador when he was 16 years old and his brother was 13. A few years later, their father departed as well, according to court documents.
From then on, the brothers were on their own.
Acurio Suárez worked odd jobs in Ecuador, ranging from dangerous assignments in nearby mines to washing dishes and carrying loads of potatoes and vegetables in the local market for a small stipend. He once worked for a woman who sold chickens and was paid mostly with food and coffee.
Acurio Suárez loves soccer and being around people, according to his brother’s writings to the court. He is charismatic, social and humble.
The brothers began to be persecuted by a violent gang in town after they refused to join. Acurio Suárez was later beaten by gang members who knocked out his front gold teeth to steal.
He was “left for dead” and his house was set ablaze, according to court documents. The brothers moved around Ecuador before deciding to leave the country after realizing the gang’s reach was nationwide.
Acurio Suárez arrived in the U.S. in 2021 and applied for asylum within his first year in the country.
“We only came here to move forward,” Acurio Suárez’s brother wrote to the court.
A postponed hearing
Prior to his arrest in Seaford, Acurio Suárez waved his hand at an ICE agent and motioned for him to come closer, Miller-Schaeffer said. The agent then continued to watch as Acurio Suárez went up to three other cars trying to stop them.
The agent concluded that Acurio Suárez was trying to find daily work. The agent then approached and arrested him, Miller-Schaeffer said.
And when Acurio Suárez did not come back home that day, his brother called the police to help find his sibling. The police notified Acurio Suárez’s brother that he had been detained by ICE.
A spokesperson for ICE did not immediately respond to Spotlight Delaware’s request for comment on Thursday evening.
In September, Miller-Schaeffer’s request to have Acurio Suárez released into the care of his brother while his asylum application moves through the court was denied. With the Trump administration’s no-bail policy in place, the judge can only adjudicate Acurio Suárez’s case – not release him from custody.
Acurio Suárez’s asylum hearing, scheduled for this week, was postponed until January. Despite Meyer’s letter, he most likely will remain in detention until then.