Charlotte Teen Detained by ICE to Face Immigration Judge Again Next Week

CHARLOTTE, NC – With few options left, immigration attorneys for Gus Zamudio will try a Hail Mary of sorts to keep him in the country.

“It’s a shot in the dark but I’m hoping.. I’m hoping it will work out,” says friend Devyn Bauer.

She plans to be in the Lumpkin, Georgia courtroom again next Tuesday when lawyers make their case.

They’ll ask a federal judge not to deport the Northwest School of the Arts Senior.

Instead, they want the 18-year-old to have a chance to finish high school.

After graduation, he would be required to self-deport.

“When we were talking on the phone the other day he said the only thing he wants now is to be able to walk across the stage,” Bauer says.

“He’s asking to be able to finish high school so when he goes back to Mexico, with a high school diploma, he’ll have much better chance at being able to support himself and have a decent life,” explains Zamudio’s immigration attorney Marty Rosenbluth.

Tuesday Zamudio pled down from a felony to misdemeanor larceny after being accused of pocketing nearly $3,000 from a Harris Teeter where he worked.

The lesser charge will give him a better chance at returning to the country legally.

“All I can say is we’re going to fight as hard as we can,” Rosenbluth says.

Bauer still feels her friend is innocent, but had to make the plea deal to have any chance to stay.

“Just the way our system is set up, it didn’t give him much of a choice,” she says.