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. An immigration judge has now ordered that the Delaware resident voluntarily return to Ecuador, a country where he was left for dead by a violent gang.
Four months after immigration officials detained a disabled Sussex County resident outside a Lowe’s hardware store in Seaford, a federal judge ordered him to be returned to his home country of Ecuador.
The ruling on Tuesday followed months of pleas from advocates who said Victor Acurio Suárez, 52, would be put in danger if he were forced to leave the United States. In particular, they cited his developmental disabilities that limit his ability to communicate and live independently.
Court records also assert that Acurio Suárez while in Ecuador had been beaten by a violent gang, and then “left for dead” with his house set ablaze.
Among the advocates was Gov. Matt Meyer who last month publicly called on immigration officials to immediately release Acurio Suárez from federal detention.
Instead, Immigration Judge Dennis Ryan on Tuesday handed down an order of voluntary departure to Suárez, a Seaford resident who spent the past four months at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in central Pennsylvania.
Acurio Suárez lives with aphasia, a condition that affects your ability to speak, and was born with developmental disabilities that limit his ability to communicate and live independently, according to court documents. He relies on his brother for full-time care taking.
The judge’s order threatens to return Acurio Suárez to his home country, where he faced persecution and violence at the hands of a far-reaching gang, according to court records. Acurio Suárez’s lawyer, Kaley Miller-Schaeffer, said she plans to appeal the decision with the Board of Immigration Appeals.
“I was disappointed,” Miller-Schaeffer said. “This (case) hurt a little bit more than I’m used to.”
An appeal is due by Feb. 19, according to the court.
The judge’s order directs Acurio Suárez to “voluntarily” consent to leaving the country. If he refuses, the voluntary order becomes a removal order and Acurio Suárez may face monetary fines and the potential of being barred from re-entering the country for up to 10 years.
In December, Meyer sent a letter to Ryan, the judge in the case, asking for Acurio Suárez to be “immediately released” from detention. Meyer also asked the judge to 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 a December interview with Spotlight Delaware, Meyer described Acurio Suárez’s arrest as “ridiculously egregious.”
“It’s unnecessarily cruel, and it’s fundamentally at odds with our values as a nation,” Meyer said at the time.
Following his annual State of the State address on Thursday, Meyer told reporters that the court’s decision in Acurio Suárez’s case was “terrible.”
“We have an obligation to stand up and protect everyone residing in Delaware. An individual who comes here without documentation and applies for asylum is protected by federal law and protected by American treaty obligations. The fact that this federal administration seems not to be respecting that federal law and those treaty obligations, is shameful,” he said.
Arrest led to four-month detention
On Sept. 22, 2025, ICE arrested Acurio Suárez at a Seaford Lowe’s parking lot after he waved down an agent in an apparent effort to find work, according to Miller-Schaeffer. As a result of a new Trump administration policy, he has remained in custody ever since.
After he had waved his hand, motioning the agent to come closer, the officer instead continued to watch as Acurio Suárez went up to three other cars trying to stop them, Miller-Schaeffer said.
The agent concluded that Acurio Suárez was trying to find daily work. He then approached Acurio Suárez and arrested him, Miller-Schaeffer said.
When Acurio Suárez did not come back home that day, his brother called the police to help find his sibling. That’s when police notified Acurio Suárez’s brother that he had been detained by ICE.
In Ecuador, Acurio Suárez had worked odd jobs, 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, according to court records.
Acurio Suárez loves soccer and being around people, according to his brother’s writings to the court. He is charismatic, social and humble, his brother said in a letter to the court.
Around 2019, 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.
In recent years, there has been increased bloodshed in the country as a result of the government’s crackdown on criminal gangs, and the subsequent fracturing and fighting of the groups.
By 2021, Acurio Suárez arrived in the U.S. Within his first year in the country, he applied for asylum within his first year in the country.
“We only came here to move forward,” Acurio Suárez’s brother wrote in a letter to the court.