Affluenza Teen Ethan Couch Not Sent to US Today
Ethan Couch and his mother will not be deported from Mexico today after they successfully won an injunction that will allow them to remain south of the border temporarily, officials in both the U.S. and Mexico reported.
Ethan Couch has been granted a three-day stay in his deportation case, which will now go before a judge who could potentially take longer to make a decision, according to the government official.
His mother, Tonya Couch, was scheduled to leave for Houston this afternoon but she also received a similar injunction, called an “amparo,” according to Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal’s Office Southern District of Texas.
“We do not know if the Mexicans have the highest priority on this case like we do here in America. It’s on their time schedule, we’ve seen these things happen as quickly as two weeks to two months,” Hunter said at a press conference this afternoon.
Both of them are “detained” at the migrant holding center in Guadalajara, an official from Mexico’s National Institute of Immigration told ABC News.
Ethan, 18, and his mother were arrested in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Monday Dec. 28 after the U.S. Marshals and other American law enforcement agencies had been searching for them for just under two weeks.
Scott Brown and Wm. Reagan Wynn, attorneys in Texas, released a statement today in relation to their work with Couch.
“We represent Ethan concerning his juvenile matter in Tarrant County, Texas. We are not licensed to practice law in the United Mexican States (Mexico),” they wrote in a statement released to ABC News. “Accordingly, we do not represent Mr. Couch in any legal matter in Mexico. We do not represent Tonya Couch in any capacity. We do not have any additional information concerning this matter to provide at this time.”
Texas’ Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson had told “Good Morning America” today that they expected both Ethan and Tonya Couch to be back in Texas “within the next 24 to 48 hours, hopefully” but he later tweeted about some ongoing legal wrangling.
Is anyone surprised the Couch duo are putting up legal fight to not return and face justice? Not me. Will it never end? #EthanCouch
— Dee Anderson (@SheriffAnderson) December 30, 2015
The teen was being sought after missing a mandated probation check-in with Texas authorities earlier this month. During his 2013 trial on drunken-driving charges, a defense witness testified that Ethan was afflicted with so-called “affluenza,” meaning his irresponsible behavior and lifestyle were a product of his affluent upbringing and “profoundly dysfunctional” parents.