Gregory Javier Laguna, who has Down syndrome, and his brother have been detained for almost five months. Under Trump, “we feel like we have no recourse,” one advocate said.
Protesters are calling for the closure of an ICE facility in Illinois on September 19, 2025.
(Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images) Victor Laverde Laguna and Gregory Javier Laverde Laguna, who have dual Venezuelan and Colombian citizenship, arrived in the United States in September 2024 as legal asylum seekers. Victor, 62, is the guardian of his brother Gregory Javier, 50 and suffering from Down syndrome. They settled in Columbus, Ohio, and Victor eventually found a job on Facebook for him and his brother to deliver medical supplies.
In late September 2025, Victor returned to his car after dropping off a package and heard a gunshot. Five or six Athens County law enforcement officers pushed him to the ground while other officers dragged Gregory Javier from the car. Neither man speaks much English, and Gregory Javier’s speech is limited. He screamed for his brother as two officers handcuffed him and put his knees on his back. Victor shouted to the officers “my brother is down” several times in English, but their brutality did not change. The two men were dragged over gravel to a nearby police car and placed in the back seat.
Victor and Gregory Javier were caught in the middle of an alleged extortion scheme to steal $100,000 from a senior citizen. The two brothers were charged with attempted theft. In conversations through a translator with his lawyer, Victor said they didn’t know what they were carrying on their deliveries. While awaiting trial in the Southeast Ohio Regional Jail, the brothers were released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement without permission from the judge presiding over their criminal case. According to the report of Athens County Independent, the brothers entered ICE custody on the morning of October 29, 2025, just hours before prosecutors filed charges. motion to dismiss the case of the brothers. In transferring the brothers to federal custody, local authorities ignored a court order ordering the brothers held on bond and allowed their indefinite detention by ICE.
Victor and Gregory Javier (courtesy of Julio Laverde Belandria) Victor and Gregory Javier have been held at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown for nearly five months. I spoke with Julio Laverde Belandria, Victor’s son and Gregory’s nephew, in late February. He said he can speak with his father every day, but Gregory Javier’s mental health is suffering. In a interview carried out On December 18, Victor spoke of regular episodes of shouting and fighting between inmates. At a location where they were previously held, there was a man who kept approaching Gregory Javier with a stick. “My brother should never have been incarcerated,” Victor told the reporter. “He should never have been treated with the violence he was from day one. »
A deposit by Victor’s defense attorney, Scott Petroff, on October 30, 2025, states that Gregory Javier suffers from “developmental disabilities” and is under the guardianship of his brother. In other words, Grégory Javier does not understand the consequences of the legal proceedings nor the reason for his detention. Yet it appears that local and state authorities wanted to draw as little attention as possible to the fact that they arrested a man with Down syndrome for a crime he was not capable of committing. Petroff told a reporter in November, “At least with Grégory, it would be very easy for them [the prosecutors] to say: “We didn’t realize he had an intellectual disability when we arrested him. »…But then they would have to admit that they made a mistake. The brothers’ surrender to ICE gave local authorities the opportunity to wash their hands of their mistake.
People with disabilities have never been considered desirable American citizens. Look no further than the U.S. Immigration Act of 1882, which banned “lunatics” and “idiots” from entering the country. However, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 requires state and local law enforcement to make reasonable modifications to procedures such as arrests and detention of persons with disabilities and to avoid unnecessary involvement in criminal justice. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability by any agency receiving federal funding, including ICE. In the case of criminal detention, required accommodations may include such things as ASL interpreters, health services, and removal of conditions that may exacerbate increased susceptibility to victimization.
Given the lawlessness of ICE’s actions under the Trump administration, it’s fair to ask whether such policies still matter. The Arc of the United States, an advocacy organization for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, has established programs to increase awareness of law enforcement and train state and local officials. But partnerships at the federal level have been more difficult to establish. Leigh Anne McKingsley, senior director of criminal justice for the Arc, told me, “With the ADA, we at least have a seat at the table, but with ICE and at the federal level, we feel like we have no recourse.” » The Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, once a source of mediation and relief at the federal level, now barely exists 85 percent of its staff was cut.
In the case of Gregory Javier Laguna, federal and county law enforcement defied decades of efforts to ensure that people with developmental disabilities have equal access to justice. Twenty percent of the American population is disabled, and yet they are 30 percent to 50 percent victims of police brutality, and the risk of being subjected to police violence increases for those who are not white.
Faced with these statistics and tragedies of needless violence, advocates and their family members have worked with state and local law enforcement to address the vulnerability of people with disabilities. Organizations like the Ethan Saylor wedding ring in Maryland, have worked to educate law enforcement about de-escalation when a person with a disability appears agitated or non-compliant. Saylor suffered from Down syndrome and was killed in 2013 at the age of 26 by an off-duty police officer after refusing to leave a movie theater. As part of its efforts to prevent such tragedies in the future, the organization provides training sessions to Maryland law enforcement and first responders that emphasize the need to use simple language, allow extra time for responses, reduce sensory stressors, and involve trusted support like family and caregivers when necessary. These sessions are often led by advocates with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Similar efforts to train federal law enforcement are rare, if any, and only 20 states require training for law enforcement officers on interacting with people with disabilities. Other states offer voluntary training or put people with disabilities in charge of identifying their needs. Mike DeWine, Governor of Ohio signed Keith’s law in early January, when the Laguna brothers were already in ICE custody in the state. The law allows people to register their disability with emergency services so they can be aware of a person’s support needs before arriving at the scene. Such a law, however, would have done little to prevent Gregory Javier from being violently arrested. It also assumes that people with disabilities should trust law enforcement and other first responders enough to sign up — a trust that is eroding in the face of ICE’s brutal treatment of those most often targeted for violence.
“As ICE continues, they will lose the public’s trust,” McKingsley warned. “The only way to build that trust is through honest and open communication with the disability community. »
Access to life has worked for over 15 years to defend the freedoms and civil rights of people with disabilities in Chicago. But efforts to address the unique needs of immigrants with disabilities have become increasingly necessary during recent ICE raids. Over the past year, Access Living has hosted workshops and information to inform immigrants about their rights and protections under federal disability laws like the ADA. They also formed the Immigration and Disability Watch Project, an effort to collect and elevate the stories of immigrants with disabilities like Gregory Javier who are not typically part of conversations about ICE. “We want to say, ‘Hello, we’re here, look at us,'” Michelle Garcia, Access Living’s organizing and community development manager, told me.
Due to the toll the months of imprisonment took on his brother, Victor filed for voluntary deportation. He and Gregory Javier are currently awaiting deportation from the United States to Colombia in ICE custody.
“These people did things the right way,” their immigration lawyer, Liliana Vasquez, told me. “They followed the rules for processing their asylum application. They showed up in court when they needed to.” But ultimately, thanks to an overzealous arrest by county law enforcement, doing things the “right way” no longer mattered.
Their case shows that our country’s hard-won progress toward respecting the dignity of people with disabilities is losing steam.
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Stetler pepper Pepper Stetler is a professor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She is the author of A measure of intelligence: a mother’s perspective on the IQ test.