Attorneys for a Durham teenager who is being held at an immigration detention center in Georgia say they expect him to be released soon.
Wildin Acosta, 19, has been detained for nearly eight months after a judge ordered his deportation. Acosta came to the United States illegally as a minor during a surge of immigration from Central America in 2014.
Acosta claims a violent gang in his native Honduras threatened to kill him unless he joined.
Acosta's attorney Evelyn Smallwood said the immigration court in Lumpkin, Ga., notified her by phone earlier this week that Acosta would be released if he posted a $10,000 bond. Smallwood has not yet received the order in writing.
"My experience with the court is that they do what they say they did, so I have no reason to believe that [the order] is not coming," Smallwood said.
"It's also very standard for it to take a couple of days for us to get the order just because Lumpkin is so remote that the mail tends to be delayed," she added.
The advocacy group Alerta Migratoria NC has raised more than $10,000 since last night. Officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement say Acosta's bond has not yet been paid.