politics
Ecuadorian National Deported to Ecuador After Abandoning Asylum Claim Following Five Months in ICE Detention
Willian Yacelga Benalcazar abandoned his U.S. asylum case and was deported to Ecuador on April 16, 2026, after describing harsh conditions during five months in ICE custody. CBS News analysis shows more than 75,500 asylum cases received motions to pretermit through March 31, 2026, leading thousands to withdraw claims amid third-country removal orders.
May 8, 12:13 PM·3m read1 source
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Willian Yacelga Benalcazar told an immigration judge he feared returning to Ecuador but was ordered deported to Honduras. By March 2026 he had spent five months in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention. He was transferred between five detention facilities, spent most of his time in Eloy, Arizona, and was handcuffed for an entire day during some transfers.
Yacelga caught a virus, fought for food and drank water contaminated with chlorine while in detention. His wife, children and legal team remained in New York. For over a month his family and attorney did not know where he was.
A judge denied his request to bond out of detention. Yacelga asked to be sent back to Ecuador rather than continue fighting his asylum case. "I believe we abandoned the asylum case because the lawyer told me I could be in detention for three, four additional months.
I was already sick in there. I couldn't take it anymore," he said. U.S. -Mexico border illegally in August 2023, and was arrested for larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.
Yacelga said he was never prosecuted and the charges were pending when he was detained. He was deported to Ecuador on April 16, 2026. The spokesperson added that an immigration judge ordered him deported to Ecuador last month.
Yacelga told CBS News from Ecuador about two weeks after his deportation that he struggles to sleep and still battles symptoms from the virus he caught in detention. "Everything, all the money I had earned, everything I had, I left it with them so they could survive during the time I was detained," he said, referring to his family in New York.
