US 'affluenza' teen wins Mexico deportation delay
A fugitive US teenager on Wednesday won a three-day delay from deportation from Mexico where he was detained weeks after fleeing probation imposed for a deadly drunk-driving crash.
An official at the National Migration Institute told AFP that lawyers for Ethan Couch, 18, had secured a court order to stop the deportation process for 72 hours.
The institute has yet to receive a similar petition for his mother, Tonya, and if she fails to get one she will be deported later Wednesday, the official said.
Ethan Couch will be deported in 72 hours unless a judge grants him a longer stay, which would require authorities to hold him at a migration center until his case is resolved in a process that can take months.
"He is obviously trying to delay his return to the United States," the official said on condition of anonymity, adding that Couch has little chance of avoiding deportation.
"It was proven that they (Ethan and Tonya Couch) entered the country illegally," the official said.
They are both currently held at a migration facility in the western city of Guadalajara in Jalisco state.
Ethan and Tonya Couch were detained on a street of the Jalisco resort of Puerto Vallarta on Monday night. The son had dyed his blond hair and beard black.
In Texas, authorities said the pair had carefully planned their escape, even throwing "something almost akin to a going-away party."
In 2013, the teen crashed his pickup into a group of pedestrians and another vehicle, leaving four dead and several seriously injured. Couch, who was 16 at the time, had a blood-alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit.
The son of millionaire parents made headlines during his trial when a psychologist testifying on his behalf claimed he suffered from "affluenza."
The term, coined from affluence and influenza, implied that financial privilege made him unable to understand the consequences of his actions.
Couch pleaded guilty to intoxication manslaughter. Prosecutors had sought a 20-year prison term, but the court handed him a surprise sentence of mental health treatment and a decade of probation.