A 17-year-old Massachusetts teen was recently released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in Connecticut and returned home to his family for the holidays after he was detained by agents in New York in August.
The teenager, identified by his initials, J.A.L.L., was detained on Aug. 3 while in Buffalo, with his 18-year-old brother and a friend, according to attorney Chris Mattei, a member of his legal team from Bridgeport-based Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder, PC.
According to Mattei, the three were stopped while leaving a CVS in Buffalo, New York. Local police officers approached them asking for identification. All three reportedly showed identification and were told they were free to go. Before traveling too far, the vehicle was pulled over.
“They were held for a period of time until the Department of Homeland Security arrived,” Mattei said. “It appears the local police, [allegedly] for reasons that are not clear and certainly not lawful, contacted the Department of Homeland Security. They then came and scooped all three of these guys, including an American citizen.
“They detained all three of them and quickly processed our client and his brother to Texas,” Mattei said. “You can imagine the unexpected nightmare of one second being in the car with your brother and your friend just living out your normal high school life and then the next thing you’re on a plane to Texas facing deportation.”
According to Mattei, the friend, an American citizen, was released and J.A.L.L.’s brother was ordered deported to Ecuador because he was 18. J.A.L.L, a minor, was put in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services.
The Massachusetts teen remained in an Office of Refugee Resettlement shelter in Texas until Oct. 9, according to Mattei. After that he was transferred to a shelter in Groton, Noank Community Support Services, where he was held until Dec. 23 when he was released after his lawyers filed a successful habeas petition on Dec. 19.
“Once he was arrested, and when he informed the Department of Homeland Security officials that he had status in the United States and was living with his father, they apparently coerced him into signing papers consenting to be deported to Ecuador until it was put on hold,” Mattei alleged.
According to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, its mission “is to promote the health, well-being, and stability of refugees, unaccompanied alien children, and other eligible individuals and families, through culturally responsive, trauma-informed, and strengths-based services.” The shelter in Groton reportedly runs a federal program shelter separate from ICE’s detention or enforcement roles
Mattei said he was contacted by the Center for Children’s Advocacy in early December.
“They started to become quite concerned with this particular child’s situation because he had been separated from his father for about four months … two of those months were spent in Texas,” Mattei said.
“He was then brought back to the Northeast and, despite his father having already been approved as a ‘sponsor,’ that is somebody for him to live with in this country, and despite the fact that he had lived with his father in the United States for five years, there was just this bureaucratic nightmare found in that seemed intentional that was preventing him from being reunited from his father,” according to Mattei.
“With the situation becoming increasingly dire, the Center for the Children’s Advocacy and my law firm decided to get involved to see if we could raise the issue of his detention with the federal judge to see if we could get him out,” Mattei said.
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Sabrina Tavi, director of the Immigrant Children’s Justice Project for the Center for Children’s Advocacy, said she and Mattei went to work on the case about three weeks ago. Mattei works for the same law firm that helped free Kevin, a Meriden teenager who was also released from ICE custody right before Christmas.
Mattei said he had no idea detained children were being housed in Connecticut. According to Mattei, the Noank Community Support Services is contracted by the Department of Health and Human Services. The facility is to provide shelter and to meet the daily needs of children who are in the Department of Health and Human Services custody.
“We were convinced that there was really nothing about his either initial arrest in August or his four-month detention that was lawful,” Mattei said. “Once we were retained and we familiarized ourselves with the facts we filed a habeas petition and emotion for preliminary injunctions quickly as we could.
“We were so disgusted by the fact that this child had been forcibly separated from his father. He lived with him for five years uninterrupted with no issues. He was a full-time high school student and for reasons that are not clear, that the government did not defend, he was arrested in August and separated from father,” Mattei added. “He was not one of these children who had nowhere to go and nobody did take care of him. The contrary, his father had been approved by the government to be his sponsor in the United States, so he should have never been there.”
Mattei said J.A.L.L. and his father are not U.S. citizens but aren’t here unlawfully and are seeking permanent status.
“It’s just like a family that comes to the United States under different circumstances that are going through the lawful channels of trying to establish residency here,” Mattei said.
J.A.L.L. was released to his father on Dec. 23 after driving through a snowstorm.
“We spoke to him soon after and they were both in tears and I think in some ways, it was bittersweet because they were thrilled to be together and they’re going to be going back to Massachusetts to celebrate Christmas with family,” Mattei said. “But his brother was not going to be there. I think it was obviously a great relief to be reunited and also both felt pain for going through something like that.”
Tavi said she learned about J.A.L.L.’s case in early December. She said the high school junior’s father was previously approved for him to live with during the time when he was granted Special Immigrant Juvenile status and deferred action, which is reportedly the government’s agreement that, while he awaits the availability of a visa, they won’t take any action to deport him in recognition of the fact that he has approved SIJ.
According to Tavi, J.A.L.L. had employment authorization, a Social Security number and has been an excellent high school student taking advanced classes in preparation for college. While in Texas, Tavi said, J.A.L.L. was teaching other students how to speak English.
“He’s lost a half of a year of his education and the harm and drama he experienced can’t be overstated,” Tavi said. “He’s been home about a week and hasn’t been to school yet because of the holidays. He had a joyful reunion with his father and family but is readjusting and ready to start the new year.”
Connecticut does not have any detention centers for adults detained by ICE, but there are several contracted facilities for detained children.
“There are other children being detained and we have heard anecdotally that under this administration there’s been an increase in interior enforcement actions against children who are already residing in the U.S. like J.A.L.L,” Tavi said.
Tavi said the need is dire for her office and other legal service organizations to help children like J.A.L.L.
“We are so relieved to have him reunited with his family. That is the goal,” Tavi said. “What we did was put a stop to the harm that the government was inflicting on him. But there is nothing there that makes this child whole again. There’s nothing there that heals him and his family from the harm and trauma that was inflicted on this child. It is still there, and it still exists.”