Who is Benjamin Marcelo Guerrero-Cruz? LA teen detained by ICE while walking dog; family launches GoFundMe

Benjamin Marcelo Guerrero-Cruz, an 18-year-old high school student from Los Angeles, was taken into custody by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week. Guerrero-Cruz was picked up by the ICE while he was walking a dog near Sepulveda Boulevard in western LA County.

Benjamin Marcelo Guerrero-Cruz with one of his brothers. (GoFundMe)

The incident came as a shock to the family of the Reseda Charter High School student, who are facing trouble gathering the legal fees required to challenge the ICE arrest. The family has set up a GoFundMe campaign which has raised over $47,126, at the time of this writing. Rita Silva, an associate of the family, is running the campaign.

“Less than a week ago, he turned 18, filled with dreams for his Senior year of high school,” the campaign states. It revealed that the masked agents tied the “dog to a tree and then unclipped the collar off him to run loose on the Sepulveda Blvd.”

“They treated him like a criminal, telling as they joked while arresting him that ‘thanks to him, they get to drink this weekend’, laughing about the $2,500 they just secured,” it adds.

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Benjamin Marcelo Guerrero-Cruz is a senior at Reseda High School in the LAUSD district. He has twin brothers, aged 5 months, and another 6-year-old brother and he used to take care of them, as per a Facebook post on his detention. The post describes him as a “devoted son, a caring brother, a loyal friend, and a valued member of our community.”

In a similar incident on Friday, a popular TikToker known for creating content on the ICE raids in Spanish was violently detained by the ICE at her LA home. She was violently pinned down by the masked agents, which led to some injuries and hospitalization. A video of the arrest has gone viral on social media, garnering millions of views.