IMMIGRATION Student is jailed, to be deported

Bartsch's grandpa failed to complete his necessary paperwork eight years ago.
GILBOA, Ohio (AP) -- Manuel Bartsch is no different than most high school seniors -- addicted to playing video games, gobbling chicken wings and hanging out with friends.
"He's just your average American kid," classmate Louis Schulte said.
Bartsch, though, is facing deportation to his native Germany after discovering that his step-grandfather never completed paperwork eight years ago to make his stay legal in the United States.
He is set to appear at a bond hearing today in a Cleveland federal court. An immigration judge last week stopped him from being deported until he can have a hearing before an immigration court.
Classmates and neighbors in the northwest Ohio village where Bartsch lives -- a place where conservative values run deep -- have rallied behind him while questioning the wisdom of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
Some have circulated petitions to give to immigration officials while the Pandora-Gilboa school board has asked them that Bartsch be allowed to stay at least until he graduates this spring.
"Sending an 18-year-old kid back to Germany doesn't make the country any safer," Schulte said. "What good is the law if it sends a good kid like Manuel back to Germany?"
Ed Kolhoff, a former deputy sheriff, said the law is not always black and white and that the government should be more compassionate. "Putting him in jail is no way to correct what I consider a clerical error," he said Tuesday while sipping coffee at Pandora's Lunch Box.
Unhappy discovery
Bartsch's step-grandfather -- a U.S. citizen who was his guardian -- returned to Germany in the summer, leaving Bartsch behind so he could graduate. In order to stay, Bartsch discovered the incomplete paperwork when he was searching for documents to show he was an American.
When he couldn't find any, he contacted U.S. immigration authorities hoping the office would have records. Instead, he was detained over Christmas weekend and has been jailed since.
Immigration officials are obligated to follow the law that clearly states that anyone who doesn't follow visa rules must be detained immediately and deported within 90 days, said Greg Palmore, spokesman for the agency.
Bartsch's attorney, David Leopold, said that he is in the country legally because the U.S. let him return years ago after he and his grandfather visited Canada. He is hopeful that the court will agree and allow Bartsch to graduate.
"My hope is that somebody will look at it at some level and say let's rethink this," Leopold said.
Bartsch cannot accept phone calls while in jail. The Associated Press has asked immigration officials for permission to interview him in jail.
Bartsch, born in Esselbach, Germany, had arrived in the U.S. on a 90-day visa in 1997 and easily blended in his new home where the tallest structure in town is a grain elevator.
Well-liked guy
He played on the football team at Pandora-Gilboa High School, worked odd jobs around farms and was popular with girls, all the while thinking he was a U.S. citizen. His roots didn't help him with high school German classes, though, as he struggled like everyone else, Schulte remembered.
Funny and smart, Bartsch also took an interest in photography and planned on attending college next year to become an accountant, friends say.
Everyone at the high school, which has just about 200 students, likes him because he can light up a room with his upbeat attitude, said Ben Maas, a senior classmate. "He made everybody he met his family," Maas said.
He's obsessed with sports, especially football when the Cleveland Browns and Ohio State Buckeyes are playing.
He also has a kind heart, friends say, playing the role of peacemaker between friends and coming to the aid of students who were being teased and an elderly couple whose car was stuck in a snow drift.
"He's such an easygoing kid," said Karen Blankenship, who has known Bartsch from the first week he moved into town and nicknamed him "Butch." She briefly helped raise the boy and considers him to be a son. "He's good to everyone."