Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg: ICE is Abducting NYC Public School Students as Young as 7

Elected officials and educators are rallying around public school students who have been abducted by ICE.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has abducted several New York City public school students since May, sparking outrage among community members and elected officials. 

The City reports that on August 12, federal agents abducted and detained a 7-year-old child, her 19-year-old brother, and their mother when they went to an immigration check-in at the Manhattan federal courthouse — marking the first known ICE arrest in New York City of a child under the age of 18, according to The City, which was the first news outlet to report on the case. 

The courthouse where the family was abducted, also known by its address, 26 Federal Plaza, has become a symbol of Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

Masked agents roam the hallways, abducting people who show up for mandatory immigration appointments or hearings. The 10th floor of the building has been transformed into “hell,” according to one person who was detained there for six days. After the American Civil Liberties Union and others filed suit, a judge ordered ICE to provide people with sleeping mats, period products, towels, and soap, although ICE can still refuse them toothbrushes.

ICE sent the child, a Queens public school student, and her mother to a detention facility in Texas, and her brother to Delaney Hall, an ICE jail in New Jersey run by the private prison company GEO Group. 

“We are fighting to get this family back together and will not stop until they are safely back in their community and home in Queens,” State Assembly Member Catalina Cruz and New York City Councilmember Shekar Krishnan said in a joint statement. 

ICE has abducted several students after they attended routine immigration appointments or hearings — a 20-year-old student identified in the press as Dylan, a Venezuelan public school student; Derlis Snaider Chusin Toaquiza, an 11th grader who attends high school in Queens; and Mamadou Diallo, a 20-year-old asylum seeker from Guinea.

On June 8, ICE agents abducted Derlis Snaider Chusin Toaquiza, who was 19 at the time, when he went to a court appearance for his asylum application. He was detained at 26 Federal Plaza for several days and then sent to an ICE jail in Texas. He told his attorneys that while at 26 Federal Plaza, he was only given one meal a day and had to sleep sitting up because it was so crowded.

More than a month later, a Texas immigration judge set his bond at $20,000, which was paid for by the Envision Freedom Fund (formerly the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund) and he was released. On July 18, he finally arrived home on a Greyhound bus; his family greeted him at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan. 

Community members, educators, and elected officials have rallied around the students and their families. 

“Mamadou did the right thing,” City Councilmember Rita Joseph said at a rally demanding his release. “He showed up for his routine check in and he was abducted.” 

At least two of his teachers attended the rally.

“He’s a very bright, sweet, respectful young man that was going to a court date that was unjustly taken,” one teacher told CBS News. 

Another teacher said, “For me, to be standing here today to advocate for one of my students to be released from ICE, it’s just horrible.”

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First published in Truthout. Licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the terms of the license.

ELIZABETH WEILL-GREENBERG is a reporter based in New Jersey.