An embrace between a husband and wife who were apart for four days after what one Bronx couple described as a horrifying situation. An immigrant father was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and released.<\/p>\n
Gagne Diagne, who is originally from Senegal, spoke to NY1 through a translator.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of my happiest moments is when I was released, and I came home and saw my baby,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The 30-year-old has an infant daughter who was born in the U.S., making her a U.S. citizen.<\/p>\n
He says that agents approached him near his car around 7 a.m. on Aug. 14 outside his Bronx home. Surveillance video obtained from a nonprofit organization helping with his case, the Amadou Ly Foundation, shows agents approaching him next to the vehicle.<\/p>\n
Diagne alleges the agents wore masks and did not initially identify themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw them with masks. I thought they were robbers,\u201d Diagne said. \u201cAt this moment, I was shook.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diagne says it wasn\u2019t until they reached a nearby gas station that ICE chained his waist, legs and hands, and he says that\u2019s when they identified themselves.<\/p>\n
NY1 reached out to ICE to ask about Diagne\u2019s characterization of his arrest and detention. The agency would not respond to his specific complaints, but said in a statement, in part: \u201cICE officers followed all approved official procedures during the arrest, including identifying themselves as ICE law enforcement officers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diagne said he was taken to 26 Federal Plaza, one of the federal immigration courts in the city, where he said he was held in a small, cold room. He alleges he was forced to sign documents he did not understand because he does not speak English. He said an interpreter was brought in later, but by then, it was too late.<\/p>\n
He was allowed to call his wife \u2014 who up until that point had no idea her husband had been arrested. His wife, whom Diagne met in the city, agreed to be filmed and interviewed on the condition of anonymity for fear of deportation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt extreme pain,\u201d she said. \u201cI cried after learning that my husband was apprehended by ICE.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diagne said he was later transferred to an ICE detention facility in New Jersey, where he was held for four days. He was released after the Amadou Ly Foundation, which has been assisting West African immigrants in the city, filed a petition on his behalf and a federal judge ordered Diagne released.<\/p>\n
ICE old NY1: \u201cNgagne has multiple arrests for felony trademark counterfeiting and public order crimes. ICE released Ngagne Aug. 19, based on a court order. He will be afforded all due process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diagne said he is innocent and that all charges against him were dismissed. He showed NY1 documentation of a trademark counterfeiting case\u2019s dismissal in June. NY1 reached out to the NYPD for more details on his arrest but has not heard back.<\/p>\n
Diagne said he came to the United States through the U.S.-Mexico border in April 2023. He said he was detained briefly in Texas before being allowed to continue pursuing his asylum case in the United States.<\/p>\n
He said he was involved in politics in Senegal and came to the U.S. in search of safety. Diagne has a work permit and works as a DoorDash delivery driver, but he said he has not been able to work since his release because he fears being detained again.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt hurts seriously because if you look at someone in my situation, who\u2019s in charge of everything in this house, because my wife doesn\u2019t work, it is worrying to know that if I\u2019m not there, they\u2019re most likely going to be homeless,\u201d Diagne said.<\/p>\n
The Amadou Ly Foundation said it is providing temporary financial assistance to the family. Diagne said that in the meantime, he\u2019s been taking English classes, hoping to get a commercial driver\u2019s license to become a truck driver.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy biggest dream is to have legal status in this country, be granted the opportunity to stay with my family, and never be separated from them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Diagne is continuing to move forward with his asylum case.<\/p>\n
He says the next hearing in front of an immigration judge is Dec. 17.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An embrace between a husband and wife who were apart for four days after what one Bronx couple…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[109,25,2301,75,84,83,9,24,12,6019,63,87,27,200],"class_list":["post-379042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-top-stories","tag-immigration","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-noorulain-khawaja","tag-nyc","tag-politics","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}