Judge Issues “Voluntary Departure” for Charlotte Teen Detained by ICE

CHARLOTTE, NC – A Charlotte teen detained by ICE will be forced to leave the country but may have a chance to eventually return.

18-year-old Gus Zamudio was granted “voluntary departure” by a Federal Immigration Judge Tuesday.

“It was really disappointing at first. Because we all, of course, wanted him to be able to come back and get his diploma,” explains friend and classmate Anna Butler.

She got to visit Zamudio after the hearing.

“At first he was crying, you know, really disappointed. But I think by the end he was really happy to talk to us,” she says.

Zamudio’s lawyer was able to work out a deal where the teen will not be officially deported.

Under “voluntary departure,” Gus will be taken from a detention center in Georgia straight to the airport as soon as his family can pay for a plane ticket.

“The advantages of not having a deportation on his record would mean that he would pretty much be able to apply for a visa really quickly,” explains Zamudio’s immigration attorney Marty Rosenbluth.

Zamudio was detained by ICE in February after being accused of stealing nearly $3,000 from a Harris Teeter where he worked.

Last week he pled down from a felony to a misdemeanor.

“I think that under the circumstances, the fact that he’s going to get home safely, the fact that’s he’s not going to have to sit around at the Stewart Detention Center for months, the fact that he won’t have a bar on returning, I think they understand that was probably the best we could hope for,” Rosenbluth says.

Friends maintain Zamudio’s innocence and say he had to take the plea deal to have any chance to come back to the U.S.