We demand (1) that Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer drop the charges against Juan and (2) that the ICE Field Office in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, lift the ICE hold on Juan to stop his deportation and separation from his family.

Juan came to the U.S. as a minor with his family in search of safety and a better life. He works hard to support his family and is very close to his little brother, who is still a minor. Like many young people, Juan loves playing soccer with friends.

On May 30, 2020, at the 69th Street Plaza, a shopping center on the border of Philadelphia and Upper Darby, Juan saw a group of people coalescing and decided to go check it out. He wasn’t aware that protests against police brutality and racism after George Floyd’s murder had boiled over in anger.

He wasn’t there long before he was spotted by the police and swept up along with several people nearby.

Juan remains in police custody facing multiple unjustified charges. He has been kept from his family and loved ones for five months now, waiting for hearings that never happened and facing isolation at George Hill Prison. Juan's mental health is deteriorating as he endures arbitrary treatment in the criminal justice system.

No one deserves to face the double bind of proving their innocence and fighting for the right to remain with their family at the same time. No one, innocent until proven guilty, deserves to be kept in unsanitary conditions in jails and prisons during a deadly pandemic.

While spending several months in prison, Juan came into contact with other incarcerated people, who also suffered from police violence and the use of excessive force. He understands it was not right for the police to brutalize and marginalize anyone, especially Black and Indigenous People of Color, as he had witnessed the same thing in his home country. Juan has heard more conversations about Black Lives Matter in jail and saw how police brutality impacted the Latinx community. Juan supports the people’s movement to put an end to police brutality.

The arrest and subsequent trumped-up charges are the kind of arbitrary actions that make immigrants in our country more vulnerable to exploitation. Much worse, any move to detain and deport Juan back to his country in the middle of the pandemic is a violation of basic human rights.