CLEVELAND - A Putnam County high school student from Germany will remain in a Cleveland-area jail for the next nine days, but he still has a chance of avoiding deportation and graduating with his classmates in June.

Federal immigration Judge M. Christopher Grant refused yesterday to release 18-year-old Manuel Bartsch but continued a bond hearing until Jan. 13 so his attorneys can present evidence that might allow the senior at Pandora-Gilboa High School to remain in this country, at least temporarily.

The fate of Mr. Bartsch may hinge on whether he can prove he went on a trip to Canada with relatives who bought beer.

Judge Grant said he had no jurisdiction to grant bond to Mr. Bartsch or free him, but the judge rejected a request by the federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to lift a stay that prevents the German teen from being immediately deported.

During a three-way video conference, Mr. Bartsch participated in the proceedings in Judge Grant's courtroom in Arlington, Va.

Federal officials were in the Anthony J. Celebrezze Federal Building in downtown Cleveland while Mr. Bartsch was in the Bedford Heights jail, where he has been detained since Dec. 21.

Dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit, Mr. Bartsch watched the 40-minute hearing impassively, letting attorney David Leopold speak for him.

Friends and teachers, administrators, and school board members from the Pandora-Gilboa district who traveled to Cleveland for the hearing said they were upset that Mr. Bartsch couldn't return to school but hopeful he would eventually be back in Putnam County.

"Right now, he still has a chance," said Mark Painter, whose daughter, Ashley, is Mr. Bartsch's girlfriend. "It's not a definite no.

"It could have been over today, but it isn't. The fight goes on. Somebody in immigration can be human and grant him the right to finish his education," Mr. Painter said.

Karen Blankenship, a friend who has housed Mr. Bartsch during part of his stay in Ohio, shook her head sadly after learning he wouldn't be released.

"It's a nightmare," she said. "But I'm not going to lose faith. I'm going to stand behind Butch [his nickname] as much as I can."

Immigration officials said Mr. Bartsch entered this country at Newark, N.J., with his stepgrandfather, Toby Deal, a U.S. citizen, on Aug. 21, 1997, less than a month after his 10th birthday.

Mr. Bartsch was admitted to the United States under a 90-day visa waiver, a document typically granted to tourists.

Mr. Bartsch failed to return to Germany before the visa waiver expired, federal immigration officials told Judge Grant, so the German teenager had no right to a bond hearing or other legal proceedings before being deported.

"We would ask the court to find simply that it has no jurisdiction," said Victoria Christian, deputy chief counsel for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Judge Grant said the government's position "seems harsh," but the most he could do yesterday was grant the continuance.

Another immigration judge, Wayne R. Iskra, granted an emergency motion from Mr. Leopold last week to postpone the deportation.

In his motion, Mr. Leopold argued that Mr. Bartsch was not in this country under the visa waiver because he and his grandfather traveled to Windsor, Ont., in 1998 and were allowed to leave and re-enter the United States.

Mr. Leopold told the judge Mr. Bartsch recounted the visit, which he said occurred in August of that year, during a three-hour interview Tuesday with federal immigration officials. Mr. Leopold said the boy accompanied his grandfather and an uncle on a trip to buy beer in Windsor, and he has snapshots taken from their vehicle from the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Detroit with Ontario.

"We believe the court has jurisdiction because that last entry was other than a visa waiver," Mr. Leopold said.

He also said it would be wrong to hold Mr. Bartsch responsible for the visa waiver, because it was issued when he was 10.

"This child shouldn't be saddled with that," the attorney told Judge Grant. "All this young man wants to do is graduate high school."

Ms. Christian, however, said Mr. Leopold and his client could not prove the cross-border trip occurred, and Mr. Bartsch could not give a date for his passage through U.S. Customs.

"I find it hard to believe that a truck with three people was simply waved through," she said.

"We're talking several years before 9/11," Mr. Leopold said. "Getting waved through was not all that uncommon."

Judge Grant told Mr. Leopold to provide evidence by Wednesday regarding the visit to Canada.

Toby Deal returned to Germany late last year after getting divorced, said his brother, Chuck Deal of Ottawa, Ohio. Chuck Deal said after the hearing he and a friend accompanied his brother and Mr. Bartsch on the visit to Canada.

"He's just a good kid and a smart kid too," Chuck Deal said.

"Really, he doesn't deserve what he's getting. He's just caught in a bad trap."

Mr. Leopold said Mr. Bartsch's birth mother gave him to his maternal grandmother when he was 2 months old.

The grandmother died in a car crash in 1994, and her husband brought the boy to Gilboa in 1997 and enrolled him in local schools.

Mr. Bartsch's troubles with immigration authorities began when he tried to resolve his legal status so he could get a driver's license and Social Security number. He was jailed after showing up for a meeting with immigration officials in Cleveland two weeks ago.

While Mr. Bartsch remains behind bars, Principal Mel Heitmeyer of Pandora-Gilboa High School said he was planning to arrange a video hookup like the one used for yesterday's hearing so the student can complete classwork for the first semester, which ends the date of his next hearing, Jan. 13.

After that, school officials hope the government will let Mr. Bartsch return to class. "At least for now until the 13th, there's a chance for them to do what's right," Mr. Heitmeyer said.

Contact Steve Murphy at:

smurphy@theblade.com

or 419-724-6078.

First Published January 5, 2006, 11:44 a.m.