Thread: Teen Faces Deportation

By JESSICA GOLDEN, ABCNews.com


May 19) - Manuel Bartsch has dreamed of graduating from high school and going to college for as long as he can remember. Half of that dream came true Friday, when he graduated from Pandora-Gilboa High School in northwest Ohio.

The other half of the dream hangs in the balance. The 18-year-old faces deportation, because unknown to him until six months ago when he was jailed for more than two weeks by immigration officials, he is not a legal U.S. resident.

Manuel is an ordinary 18-year-old. He can be found working out on his school's football fields or hitting golf balls with his friends. It wasn't until December 2005 that he realized he was different. He needed his Social Security number to take the college boards and realized he didn't have one -- and it was only then that he learned was not a legal resident of the United States.

He was living with his step-grandfather at the time. The older man had brought him to the United States from Germany, where Manuel had gone through a difficult childhood living with an alcoholic mother and then suffered the death of his grandmother, who was his legal guardian at the time.

Manuel arrived in Ohio in 1997 with his American-born step-grandfather on a temporary visa. Manuel didn't realize it, but the man had never adopted him legally. His legal troubles started when he got a letter from his local immigration office. The letter informed him that he had filled out the wrong form when he applied for a Social Security number. They told him to come in for an appointment to straighten it out.

Manuel was excited about the possibility of getting the Social Security number so he could take his college boards, but when he showed up for the interview he got a shock.

"I got there and they handcuffed me and brought me to jail," he said. He spent the next 16 days behind bars.

Manuel has impressed a lot of people -- leading friends, teachers and politicians to rally together to support him.

"Everyone has been behind me 100 percent," Bartsch said. "I think this experience has brought a lot of people together.

[/b] Everyone has to follow the law. I am sure that this young fellow will make it back to the United States legally.

If only the ICE would be so diligent with the thousands who are clearly trying to undermine the USA...

I am amazed they arrested the teenager? i thought they would do their old catch and release? and not bother with the immigration law but maybe Germany doesn't count - you have to be from Mexico for special treatment

the system does not cease to amaze!

CATCH & RELEASE is for Mexicans. Special treatment

Lets wait and see if anyone from Germany makes the call and speaks up against it.

But look how long it took for them to do anything, he had been in the country illegally for 9 years before they did anything.

The laws only apply to OTM's (Other Than Mexican).