Churchill High School student Alejandro, left, and his father, right, pose for a photo celebrating an academic achievement. Credit: instagram / @joaquincastro

U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, is working to secure the release of a Churchill High School student being detained in a migrant prison camp an hour southwest of San Antonio.

Castro’s office said the youth, whom it identified Alejandro, and his father, Jairo, were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on May 17. The congressman’s office declined to provide the family’s last name or their country of origin.

The pair was driving to an after-school soccer game when unmarked vehicles suddenly surrounded their car, according to Castro’s office. The two were immediately detained and sent to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, which has been the subject of national news reports about allegations of mistreatment of migrants held in its custody.

Castro met with Alejandro and his father during a visit to Dilley late last month.

“He told me how much he misses his mother and was having trouble eating,” Castro said on Wednesday. “They are asylum seekers and did everything the right way. They do not belong at Dilley — no child does. ICE should release them immediately and let Alejandro and his dad return home.”

Castro added that Alejandro was upset about missing his last day of 10th grade.

Alejandro is at least the second San Antonio-area student to be detained and held in Dilley over the past few weeks.

Immigration agents detained members of an Alamo Heights family last month as they while waited at a school bus stop — a story that made national headlines. Those individuals, who included a mother and her two children, have since been released through Castro’s advocacy.

This is a developing story.

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Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...