Sarah McBride calls for release of severely disabled Delaware resident from ICE custody
Sarah McBride was the first trans person to be elected to US congress. (Getty)
Sarah McBride was the first trans person to be elected to US congress. (Getty)
Democrat congresswoman Sarah McBride has demanded US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) immediately release a disabled man who has been ordered to be deported.
Last week, an immigration judge ordered Victor Acurio Suárez – who has spent the last four months in the Moshannon Valley Processing Center – to return to his home country of Ecuador.
Advocates have warned the 52-year-old will be in danger if he returns to Ecuador, as he fled the country after being brutally beaten by the Los Lobos gang, who left him for dead and burned down his home.
“The detainment and now the order to deport Victor Acurio Suárez is morally bankrupt. It shows a complete lack of care, compassion, and basic humanity toward a vulnerable neighbour who has done everything the law asked of him and poses no threat to anyone,” said McBride, who was sworn-in as the first ever out trans member of Congress in January 2025.
“He has no criminal history and followed the law by applying for asylum upon arriving in our country. He is the exact kind of individual that our asylum system is meant to protect.”
Forcing him back to a country where he was brutally attacked and left for dead is wrong. It’s also a stark warning about what happens when our systems abandon empathy altogether,” she added.
“I am calling on immigration authorities to immediately release Mr. Acurio Suárez and grant him asylum.”
This is not the first time McBride has called out ICE, having labelled the federal immigration agency Trump’s “personal paramilitary force”.
Governor Matt Meyer has also previously called for the 52-year-old’s release, describing the situation as “egregious, unnecessarily cruel, and fundamentally at odds with our values as a nation”.
“Victor Acurio Suarez poses no threat to public safety,” Meyer wrote in a statement. “He has no criminal history and relies on his family for daily care. Delaware believes in upholding public safety and ensuring that our systems are not inflicting harm on individuals who pose no threat and are uniquely vulnerable. 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 added he had personally written to the court urging Suarez’s immediate release, stating: “Deporting him would place him at grave risk, separating him from his caretaker and returning him to a country where he previously fled brutal gang violence. That is not justice, and that is not who we are as a country or a state.
“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.”
