ICE detains another NYC public school student: 'We've been fearing this all summer'

Federal immigration agents have detained another New York City public school student at an immigration hearing amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented people, according to city and federal officials.

Mamadou Mouctar Diallo, a 20-year-old Brooklyn high school student originally from Guinea, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week at immigration court in Lower Manhattan, city councilmembers and some of his teachers said Thursday.

“ We’ve been fearing this all summer, and it happened,” said Diallo’s American history teacher, Pedro Grant, who spoke in support of his student alongside elected officials and community members near City Hall. “I really don't know how we're going to start the school year not having Mouctar with us, and with the fear of somebody else being abducted by ICE.”

Diallo is a rising 12th grader at Brooklyn Frontiers High School, a transfer school in Downtown Brooklyn that serves many immigrant students. He’s at least the third New York City public school student to be detained by immigration agents so far this year, according to city officials and attorneys for the students’ families.

In a statement, Assistant Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Diallo crossed the southern U.S. border illegally “as part of a caravan of 51 other migrants who were apprehended by Customs and Border Patrol” on Jan. 13, 2024. She said he was released by the Biden administration and arrested on Aug. 4, 2025.

“He will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings,” McLaughlin said.

ICE detainee records on Thursday showed Diallo was being held at Pike County Correctional Facility in Pennsylvania.

Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos said Wednesday in a social media post that said she was “heartbroken” to share the news of his detention, though she did not name him or provide further details about his case. A team from Project Open Arms, a city initiative that assists migrant students in public schools, was working to connect the student’s family to legal support, she added.

“To all our families — please know that our schools are safe, welcoming places,” Aviles-Ramos said. “We encourage you to continue sending your children to school this fall, where they are valued and cared for.”

City Councilmember Lincoln Restler, who represents Downtown Brooklyn, said Diallo came to the city alone from Guinea last year. Diallo then completed a training program to become a security guard, joined the Audubon Society and enrolled in a culinary internship, Restler said.

“ We have to get loud, we have to organize, we have to fight back and we have to make clear to Donald Trump and his minions that we will not stand by,” he said at the rally Thursday.

Zachary Nosanchuk, a spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams, said in a statement that his office was gathering more information about Diallo’s detention and “reviewing next steps, including our legal options.”

You know when you have somebody that comes from another part of the world and they're just excellent? That’s Mouctar.

Brooklyn Frontiers High School teacher Pedro Grant

Grant, the teacher at Brooklyn Frontiers, said many of his immigrant students expressed fear about being detained by ICE toward the end of this past school year.

“ It [was] just, you know, ‘Am I going to be taken?’” he said, noting his fellow teachers had started escorting some students to the subway after school.

Diallo never told his teachers why he came to the United States, but he was focused on graduating and moving his life forward, Grant added.

“ You know when you have somebody that comes from another part of the world and they're just excellent? That’s Mouctar,” he said.

At least two other city public school students were detained by immigration agents in 2025.

Last month, 19-year-old Derlis Snaider Chusin Toaquiza was released from ICE custody in Texas after being detained in June following an immigration hearing in Lower Manhattan. Toaquiza had arrived in the United States from Ecuador with his family in March 2024 and was in 11th grade at Grover Cleveland High School in Ridgewood. His parents had applied for asylum, citing discrimination they faced as part of an indigenous tribe.

In May, a 20-year-old student from Venezuela named Dylan became the first known student detained this year at a Manhattan immigration courthouse. Also an asylum seeker, Dylan had attended ELLIS Prep, a public international school in the Bronx serving immigrant students over the age of 15 who have been in the United States for less than a year. He remains in detention in Pennsylvania, according to his legal team.

This story has been updated with additional details.