ICE Detained Teen For Months Because He Looked 'Mature:' NYC Suit

NEW YORK CITY — A 17-year-old boy who fled police persecution in Guinea said ICE agents locked him up in an adult facility, in violation of department policy and his rights, because his face looked old, court records show.

Amadou Barry, now 21 and living in The Bronx, is suing the U.S. over the four months he spent in a Texas Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center, trying to convince officials his birth certificate was real, according to the complaint filed in Manhattan's federal court Tuesday.

"Alone, confused, deprived of the most basic access to justice and services, Amadou suffered ... severe emotional distress, depression, anxiety and fear," the suit states. "All of which continue today. "

Barry's journey to The Bronx began in 2016, when he was 16, and Guinea police arrested and beat him for involvement with a minority political party, according to the suit.

The teenager, fled his home, joined a group heading through South America to the U.S. where he hoped to reach a cousin living in New York, the suit says.

The months-long journey included passage through Panama, where Barry lied about his age — claiming to be 25 — to avoid separation from his group and possible deportation as a minor, according to the complaint.

This decision would soon come to haunt him after he was stopped by Customs and Border Protection officials in Hidalgo, Texas, on Oct. 17, 2017, the suit says.

Customs and Border Protection officers refused to believe Barry was a minor — even after he produced a scanned copy of his birth certificate — because they decided he looked old, the suit contends.

"Subject has all the physical characteristics of a mature adult," an officer wrote in a report. "Male appears to have a fully matured facial structure.”

Barry was taken to the Port Isabel Detention Center, an adult ICE-managed detention center in Texas — the next day, according to the suit.

He remained there for four months.

Multiple reports have found ICE frequently breaks its own rules — which mandate the release of minors from immigration detention “without unnecessary delay” — by throwing them into adult facilities.

A Department of Homeland Security analysis from 2009 found juvenile field coordinators — tasked with overseeing ICE's handling of young detainees — found kids misplaced in adult ICE-facilities as frequently as three times per week.

The lawsuit notes, "ICE has never established a system to track the erroneous placement of children in adult facilities."

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to Patch's request for comment, but ICE told the ACLU in June that it detains teens only rarely, when “deemed to pose a significant threat to public safety.”

Immigration attorney Samantha Ratcliffe contested this characterization of ICE's policy toward teens.

“It’s like a black hole,” Ratcliffe reportedly said. “But it’s just horrifying, and nobody really knows it’s happening.”

Barry would spend the next four months trying to convince ICE officials he was a teenager, submitting to unreliable dental exams and four immigration hearings, according to the suit.

During this time, Barry was not separated older men, some of whom were detained because of criminal conduct, and couldn't contact his cousin, a lawyer, or therapist, the suit states.

"Amadou frequently cried," according to the suit. "At night he was often unable to sleep."

The Embassy of Guinea verified his birth date in February 2018 and his claim was ruled credible, the suit states. But Barry still had to wait a month more in detention.

The immigration enforcement agency is required to release detained children who are not accused of a crime without delay and hand them over to family or sponsors, according to a 1997 settlement agreement.

Finally, on May 23, 2018, Barry was released from an Office of Refuge Resettlement facility in Chicago to his cousin's care, the suit contends.

Two years after he fled police persecution in his home country, Barry had made it to his new home in The Bronx.

But there is one element of Barry's former life in Guinea he has not escaped.

"He remains afraid," The lawsuit states, "that ... officers will once again detain him."