SEAFORD, Del. - Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer said Wednesday night in a Facebook post that he personally wrote to a court urging the immediate release of Victor Acurio Suárez after reports that federal immigration authorities detained the developmentally disabled Delaware resident.
"The reports of federal immigration authorities detaining a developmentally disabled Delawarean are deeply disturbing. These actions are egregious, unnecessarily cruel, and fundamentally at odds with our values as a nation," Meyer said in the post.
Meyer said Acurio Suárez poses no threat to public safety, has no criminal history, and relies on his family for daily care. He said Delaware believes in upholding public safety while ensuring its systems do not inflict harm on individuals who pose no threat and are uniquely vulnerable.
Meyer said Acurio Suárez was detained despite full compliance with the law and a pending asylum claim.
"Detaining someone in his condition, despite full compliance with the law and a pending asylum claim, serves no legitimate public safety purpose and inflicts real harm on an exceptionally vulnerable person," Meyer said.
Meyer said he personally wrote to the court, urging Acurio Suárez’s immediate release and said that deporting him would place him at grave risk, separating him from his caretaker and returning him to a country he previously fled because of brutal gang violence.
"That is not justice, and that is not who we are as a country or a state," Meyer said.
"Our immigration system must be guided by compassion, proportionality, and sound judgment-not by indiscriminate enforcement or for the sake of fulfilling quotas. Delaware will continue to speak out when federal actions cross the line from enforcement into cruelty, and I will continue to advocate for the dignity and safety of every Delaware resident," Meyer said.
The ICE online detainee locator listed Acurio Suárez as being in ICE custody at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania.