Friars in Glendora Receive Custody of Boy From INS

A 12-year-old boy who entered this country illegally and was being held by immigration authorities on a $25,000 bond was released Friday into the custody of an order of Franciscan friars, officials and a friar said.

“He’s going to have a good home,” said Brother Sean Smith, a member of the St. Anthony Friary in Glendora, which took charge of the child Friday afternoon.

The boy, MacDonald Caballero, who said he was a Nicaraguan-born orphan, had been picked up by Los Angeles police late one night in March as he wandered the streets alone. Police placed him in the Eastlake Juvenile Hall, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service took over the case and began deportation proceedings against him.

Because Caballero had no known relatives in the United States, INS officials believed he was likely to flee and set the unusually high bond of $25,000.

An immigration judge on Tuesday did not reduce the bond but said that if a “responsible adult” could be found to take Caballero, the court would release him.

After a story about the boy appeared in The Times, public-interest lawyers representing Caballero and INS officials were flooded with telephone calls from people offering to take him. On Thursday the bond was reduced to $2,000, and after Smith contacted the INS, Caballero was released to the friars on his own recognizance.

“Our primary concern was to ensure that this youth be turned over to a responsible adult,” INS spokeswoman Virginia Kice said in explaining why the bond was reduced and then dropped.

Caballero, who admits that he entered the country illegally, still faces deportation. A hearing on his case, originally set for May 15, will be rescheduled.

Caballero’s predicament is not unusual, according to INS officials and social workers. The number of unaccompanied youngsters who cross illegally into the United States from Mexico has been rising steadily in recent years, and many end up on the streets or in juvenile detention facilities.

At Eastlake alone, approximately 18 foreign-born children a week are turned over to the INS for possible deportation, officials say.