A University of Florida chemical engineering senior was pulled aside by federal immigration agents at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport as he waited to fly home to Gainesville, and he has been sitting in a South Georgia detention center ever since. Juan Sanchez was returning from Chicago, where he had just finished a job interview with Nestle, when agents detained him instead of letting him board his flight.
A Stop That Upended A Job-Hunting Trip
According to FOX 5 Atlanta, Sanchez was awaiting his flight back to school when agents detained him at the airport. The outlet reports he was returning to Gainesville after the Chicago interview, a routine trip for a job-hunting senior that instead ended with him being taken into custody.
Sanchez's stepfather told the station that the family came to the United States in 2019, when Sanchez entered with his mother and sister on a tourist visa that they later overstayed. Because Sanchez was 16 at the time, his stepfather said, he began the asylum process under his mother's case rather than filing separately.
Family Says He Has No Criminal Record
His stepfather said Sanchez has no criminal record, holds a pending asylum application, and possesses work authorization valid through 2030. Those details come from the family, not from independent documentation, and FOX 5 reports that ICE has not responded to requests for more information regarding the specific reasons behind Sanchez's arrest.
Sanchez is currently being held at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, the same facility that, per a Vera Institute analysis of detention data through March, was one of just two ICE mega-facilities nationwide holding more than 2,000 people on a given day. A bond hearing is scheduled for Friday, but his family says there is no guarantee he will be granted release.
Part Of A Broader Pattern At Airport Checkpoints
Sanchez's case follows other airport detentions that have drawn scrutiny this year. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Hartsfield-Jackson has been part of a reported increase in ICE agents at airports across the country, and that agents there have apprehended foreign nationals as well as at least one U.S. citizen who was mistaken for someone else. The newspaper also cited New York Times reporting that federal agents had begun arresting immigrants with expired visas as they traveled through airports, a shift from a prior practice of targeting only travelers with existing deportation orders.
CNN has reported similar incidents elsewhere, including the case of a woman detained at a Washington, D.C.-area airport while flying home to Texas; she had entered the country legally, was in the asylum process, and was being held in Virginia. In Las Vegas, agents attempted to detain a man named Phu Nguyen at the airport on July 13, but police released him after determining he had no outstanding warrants. Immigration attorneys told CNN that airport arrests were happening more frequently, though a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson declined to confirm an increase.
A Wisconsin case drew national attention when ICE detained state patrol trooper Carel Aaron Van Der Merwe during what NBC News described as a targeted enforcement operation at Dane County Regional Airport in Madison as he waited to board a domestic flight. His attorneys said he was an asylum-seeker from South Africa with valid federal work authorization, and ICE records showed he was being held at a detention facility in Juneau, Wisconsin.
What Happens At A Bond Hearing
Under the Department of Justice's Executive Office for Immigration Review policy manual, a person in ICE custody can request that an immigration judge conduct a bond hearing, and the judge has authority to redetermine a bond amount set by DHS. That general guidance does not indicate what will happen at Sanchez's hearing, and his family says they are bracing for the possibility that he will not be released.
