Mamadou Mouctar Diallo, the Brooklyn transfer student whose federal immigration arrest sparked outrage and protest over the summer, has been granted asylum and released from detention, according to his lawyers.
Mouctar, a 20-year-old student at Brooklyn Frontiers High School from Guinea, was detained in August during a routine immigration check-in at 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan.
Shortly after his arrest, dozens of members of the City Council, teachers and advocates descended on the steps of the New York City Education Department headquarters to call for his immediate release. Members of New York’s Democratic congressional delegation wrote an open letter to President Trump’s administration on Mouctar’s case and a handful of others, while Mayor Adams’ administration filed a letter in support of a bond hearing.
Last month, Mouctar was granted asylum based on his political opposition and ethnicity, and released three days later from a Pennsylvania detention facility on Nov. 21 — just in time for the week of Thanksgiving.
He has since returned to Brooklyn, where he does not have immediate family but has formed a “great support system” that includes his principal, other school administrators and friends, said Nusrat Hussain, a staff attorney in the immigration law unit at The Legal Aid Society.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of ICE, did not immediately return a request for comment. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin previously said Mouctar crossed the southern border early last year as part of a caravan with 51 other migrants, who were apprehended by customs and border protection officers before being released into the country under the Biden administration.
“He is seemingly in great spirits,” Hussain said — with a caveat: “As the appeal window still remains open for DHS, he is nervous about that.”
Brooklyn Frontiers High School. (Google)
After his arrest, the principal of Brooklyn Frontiers, Alona Cohen, remained in regular contact with Mouctar and made several trip to visit him in detention at the Pike County Correctional Facility, according to the New York City Quakers, which has a location next door to his school.
“Mouctar always remained in school. His principal worked to help him maintain that even while in detention,” said Hussain, who added that Mouctar was released on a Friday — and back in his classroom the following Monday.
As a student, Mouctar completed a training program to become a security guard and was looking forward to working. He also participated in a culinary program at the Quakers meeting house next door.
While in detention, Mouctar wrote to his teachers and classmates that he was taking online classes, while waiting to be released one day and return to school. “I promise to do my best when I come back to school and make my school proud,” he said in the letter, shared on the Quakers website.
Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos said in a statement that she was thrilled — and relieved — about the news: “I am absolutely thrilled about the news that Mamadou Diallo has been granted asylum and is returning home to his school community that has stood by him from the very beginning.”
“Mamadou should have been spending the last few months preparing for his senior year, exploring different post-graduation pathways, and enjoying his youth — not in ICE detention,” her statement continued. “I am relieved knowing that he will be reunited with his family and friends, and can continue his life here in New York City.”
Mouctar’s arrest came amid a slew of high-profile immigration cases involving New York City students around the start of the school year. Several of those young people have since been released, though some remain in detention or were deported.
It appears the threat of heightened immigration enforcement during Trump’s second presidential term has already started to reshape the city’s public school system. A recent Chalkbeat analysis found that while preliminary enrollment this year fell by 2% citywide, it plummeted by 11% at the dozens of schools that registered the most migrant families in recent years.
“I’m profoundly relieved that Mouctar is back with his community here in Brooklyn,” said Councilman Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn), whose district includes Mouctar’s school. “None of our students should ever be ripped away from their loved ones, and we must do everything in our power to keep ICE from targeting our young people.”
With Emma Seiwell