Dunwoody student faces deportation as attorney calls it 'a death sentence'

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]He's very scared. He's very sad and disappointed uh like all of us are.

[00:00:04]>> Alex Cornnejo says the news that ICE denied his client Axel Rios a stay of removal is devastating.

[00:00:12]>> This order of removal if if it's enforced is the equivalent to a death sentence. I I that's how I see it.

[00:00:20]>> Why?

[00:00:21]>> His father is an MS-13 uh gang member convicted. It's public record. Um, he is free roaming around Honduras. We don't know. Uh, he's a target right now.

[00:00:33]>> Corno tells me his client has been in the US since he was five and his mother did apply for asylum in Florida where they were living at the time.

[00:00:42]>> She was under the assumption that she had an attorney working on her case.

[00:00:45]However, that person turned out not to be an attorney.

[00:00:48]>> So, she never went to her hearing and the order of removal was filed in absentia for her and her son Axel. Fast forward 11 years and Axel is now a junior at Dunwy High School, a big brother and a soccer player. But then he gets pulled over driving without a license in late March with his order for removal from 2015 still in place. ICE detained him upon his release and now ICE has denied a stay of removal. So Axel could be sent back to Honduras at any time. Cornnejo says his mother is the principal applicant, so she is also at risk of deportation. They're going after the children so that you know the parents can follow.

[00:01:28]>> So you think that that's the goal is to get him out of here so then she'll just on her own go?

[00:01:32]>> Yes.

[00:01:33]>> Cornnejo says while this is a chance for ICE to show that they are looking at these cases on an individual basis. His main goal is to keep Rios here. So he's filing the motion to reopen the original case as a last and final hope.

[00:01:48]>> What do you say to people who say law is law not here legally got to go? I say that uh this country was built on uh compassion and empathy, but I also say the rule of law. Correct. The law allows us to file a motion to reopen under extraordinary circumstances.