Advocates, community members rally to demand release of NYC student Mamadou Diallo detained by ICE
LOWER MANHATTAN, New York (WABC) -- Advocates, elected officials, and fellow students rallied on Thursday morning for the release of student Mamadou Mouctar Diallo.
Mamadou, who is from West Africa, was detained following a routine court appearance at Federal Plaza in Manhattan on August 4.
The 20-year-old Brooklyn Frontiers High School student is at least the third New York City public school student to be detained by ICE under the Trump administration's rigid immigration policies.
It is a transfer school, serving students who are over 18 and under credited, according to its website.
City leaders say he has no family in the area, and for Education Chair and City Councilmember Rita Joseph, they have one goal in mind.
"He's a rising senior, he's a student working, with no family members in New York," Joseph said. "That's why we're all coming together, all my colleagues and advocates are coming together to bring Mamadou home."
Joseph said Diallo was doing the right thing.
"Take a good look at this young man who came here from his home in West Africa, he's alone, he's 20 years old, he's doing the right thing, he's working, he was abducted by this administration, enough is enough," Joseph said.
On Thursday, his teachers said they were stunned.
"He's just a really sweet, kind, respectful, you know, somebody wants to better himself," a teacher said. "And he came here to do that and it just has been taken away for him at this moment. And this shouldn't be happening."
Homeland Security officials are defending their decision, and said in a statement:
"Diallo was RELEASED into our country by the Biden administration. ICE arrested him on August 4, 2025. He will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings. Most aliens who illegally entered the United States within the past two years are subject to expedited removals."
Immigrant rights advocates say it's an outrage.
"They are following the process, their cases have not been dismissed nor granted so they are respondents in this moment in immigration court," Murad Awawdeh with New York Immigration Coalition. "They are going to court seeking relief and until the court process plays out, why undermine their due process rights? But that's what the Trump administration doesn't care about."
Diallo was seeking a special immigration juvenile status at the time of his detainment.
Eyewitness News is told he's now being fast-tracked through the federal system.
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