SEVIERVILLE — ICE was in the process on Tuesday of releasing a Sevier County High School student from detention after determining he was a minor, according to information from the agency.The arrest of Kristopher Jareth Rivas-Betanco caused shock waves around the community where he’s lived for about seven years. He and his mother, Gladys Betanco Martinez, were detained in Sevier County on Thursday.Records here showed he had just turned 18 the week before he was detained, but ICE indicated Tuesday they learned that he is still under 18.“ICE arrested Gladys Betanco-Martinez and a minor, illegal aliens from Honduras, Sept. 17 in Sevierville, Tennessee after the minor was arrested by local police for driving without a license,” said Melissa Egan, a public affairs specialist for ICE.“On April 21, 2019, U.S. Border Patrol Agents encountered Betanco-Martinez and a minor near the Rio Grande Valley sector in Texas after they illegally entered the country.“At the time of the 2019 encounter, information Betanco-Martinez provided to authorities indicated her son, the minor, was 18 years old at the time of the Sept. 17 arrest. That same information was provided during processing on Sept. 17.“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,” she said Tuesday afternoon.Family friends said they were monitoring the situation Tuesday and he had not been released at the time this story was published.ICE records showed that Gladys Betanco-Martinez was still being held at a detention facility in Alabama on Tuesday.Friends of the family, and particularly of Kristopher, have been speaking up about the detention since it happened last week.To their knowledge, the SCHS senior had just turned 18 a week before it happened, said Rachel Keohane.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,” Egan said. “ To be clear a pending application or work authorization does not confer legal status in the United States.""We encourage all illegal aliens to take control of their departure with the CBP Home App. The United States is offering illegal aliens $3,000 and a free flight to self-deport now. We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way.”Family and friends here have started a gofundme to help raise money to hire an immigration attorney for the family.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 Labor 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.”