9-year-old who pleaded to go to spelling bee released from ICE detention
By Mike Hixenbaugh
Published on March 25, 2026.
Deiver Henao Jimenez, a 9-year-old boy who pleaded for release from an immigration detention center in South Texas to attend his state spelling bee, has been freed with his family from the Dilley Immigration Processing Center. The boy and his parents, asylum seekers from Colombia, had been held at the facility since March during a routine immigration check-in in New Mexico. Their lawyer, Corey Sullivan Martin, freed them on humanitarian parole a week after Martin filed a request for their release and days after NBC News reported on their case. Deiver's release comes after another child was freed following a video call with Rachel Accurso, whose real name is Rachel.
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