SEVIERVILLE — A Sevier County High School student who was detained by ICE last week was back with his family on Wednesday, and friends and family said they would keep working for the release of his mother, who was arrested at the same time.Kristopher Rivas-Betanco was detained Thursday while driving with his mother, Gladys Betanco Martinez.Court records indicated that Rivas-Betanco had turned 18 just days earlier, but iCE later indicated that he was still a minor and that he was released after officials learned he was a minor.“After reviewing documents, officials determined the birthdate Betanco-Martinez provided for her son was incorrect. The minor was immediately removed from detention, transported back to Tennessee, and will be released to a guardian,” officials said Tuesday afternoon.On Wednesday, a friend of the family who has been speaking out about the incident said Kristopher was back with family although he had not returned to school yet.ICE records showed that Gladys Betanco-Martinez was still being held at a detention facility in Alabama Wednesday.Supporters say they will keep working to secure her release as well.“We are just gonna have to fight harder and louder for her,” said Rachel Keohane, who has been speaking out about the incident since last week.Her sons are friends with Kristopher, and she was among the local people who took to social media and contacted local officials after learning about the incident.Just hours before the arrest, he’d been out with friends at a local swimming hole.“He was on his way home from picking up his mom from work,” she said.Friends of the family say that they came to Sevier County in 2019 — when Kristopher was 11 — and have been here since.Immigration court records show that the family had sought asylum, but a judge dismissed their case in 2024.“All illegal aliens receive due process through immigration proceedings,” said Melissa Egan, a public affairs specialist for ICE. “To be clear a pending application or work authorization does not confer legal status in the United States."Family and friends here have started a GoFundMe to help raise money to hire an immigration attorney for the family, and an online petition for the release of Gladys Betanco-Martinez.For local families, much of the contact with Kristopher has come through school and sports.Charles Ottolini coached him in youth soccer. Kristopher grew up with his sons.“My boys both like him, they think the world of him,” he said. “I have always found him to be extremely polite. Even now when I’m not coaching he always comes and shakes my hand.”Talking to teachers over the past few days, he got the impression his sons were not alone.“They all say he is a great young man,” he said.And that’s one of the things that drives home the difference in Kristopher and many other people who have been detained by ICE over the last few months.Since ICE held an operation in East Tennessee on Memorial Day, hundreds of people have been held on immigration detainers at the Sevier County Jail.Few have caused the outcry that Kristopher’s detention did, because so many have gotten to know him and because he came here as a child and was either still a minor or had just turned 18 and is still in high school.For Ottolini, that all made him different from what he imagined when the current crackdown on immigration started.“When they talked about illegals and stuff like that they talked about drug dealers and criminals and stuff like that and now they’re taking people off the streets like him,” Ottolini said.“He’s an 18-year-old kid. He should be in school and should be graduating with his friends.”