Officials of New York City expressed outrage and pain for detention, last week, of a 7 -year -old girl of Queens and two of her relatives in an immigration court by ICE.
As The City first reported, ICE agents arrested the student from a public school in Queens, her mother and her 19 -year -old brother while attending a mandatory judicial hearing in the 26th Federal Plaza. This is the first known case of a minor detained in this way at Lower Manhattan headquarters.
The girl and her mother were transferred to a detention center in Texas, while the teenage son remains held in New Jersey, according to The City report. The family, originally from Ecuador, would have entered the United States in 2022.
School Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos confirmed that the girl, student of the PS school. 89q The Jose Peralta School of Dreamers in Elmhurst, was in ICE custody. He expressed his regret for the situation and sought to give tranquility to the worried parents.
“It hurts deeply to share that another of our students was arrested by ICE while attending his immigration audience. Our team of Project Open Arms is next to the student’s family, working closely to connect them with legal support and other critical services,” said Aviles-Ramos on social networks. “To all our families – please know that our schools are safe and welcoming places, and we are still committed to supporting each student. We encourage them to continue sending their children to school this fall, where they are cared for and valued.”
In recent months, our sister publication, Amnewyork, has documented the presence of ICE in the Lower Manhattan immigration court and arrests with strong emotional burden that occur there, including family separations. However, this is the first registered case of a child in custody. Mothers are usually allowed to go out with their children without being detained.
Elected officials representing the area where the family lived said they were horrified by the detention and climbing of ICE.
“I am horrified by reports on a family in my district, including a minor, being arrested. My office is fighting with federal representatives and local agencies to get them again,” councilman Shekar Krishnan wrote in X. “This is ICE’s first known arrest to a minor in New York. Family separation must end.”
“My team has been in contact with people close to the family and we are looking for more details,” added Congressman Grace Meng.
At a press conference last month in New York, the Secretary of National Security Kristi Noem and the border tsar Tom Homan defended ICE against criticism, claiming that they only chase criminals. But that argument collapses now that a minor is detained, according to the State Attorney General, Letitia James.
“This administration is destroying families. It is cruel, inhuman and wrong,” James wrote in X.
On Thursday, immigrants held on the tenth floor of the 26th Federal Plaza were evacuated after five cards with white dust arrived at ICE offices on the ninth floor.
