Tears for her dad
Girl tells of loving immig as deport halted
Four members of Congress, a borough president and top union officials all had strong words Monday about a Gambian immigrant fighting deportation and separated from his family after being detained by immigration officials five weeks ago.
But it was his little girl who spoke the loudest.
“The government says they’re protecting children but they’re separating families,” said 10-year-old Aminata Sillah, whose father, Baba Sillah, was taken into custody Jan. 31 after a routine check-in.
“My father is caring. He takes care of us. He supports us even through the toughest times. We always stick together.”
ICE took Sillah, 48, into custody after he checked in with immigration officials as part of his ongoing efforts to secure permanent residency status in the United States, family members and officials at Sillah’s union, 32BJ SEIU, said.
Since being taken into detention, Sillah has been held in the immigration department’s Hudson County Correctional Center in Kearny, N.J., and has not been able to see his family.
Sillah received a last-minute stay of deportation last week just minutes before boarding a plane to his native Gambia, said lawyers from the New Sanctuary Coalition’s Community Legal Defense team, which has taken on his cause.
The father of five called his wife at 7:45 p.m. before boarding an 8:20 p.m. flight and told her he would be forced to leave the country. But a judge stepped in at the last moment and gave him a reprieve.
Sillah will have a hearing on March 15 to determine if his stay of deportation will be extended.
“We miss Baba very much and want him back home,” said his wife, Mamou Drame. “Things were bad enough when Baba was taken on Jan. 31. We were so upset. I had to stop working because I no longer had Baba to help me take care of the kids.”
Drame was joined by four members of Congress from New York — Adriano Espaillat, Yvette Clarke, Grace Meng and Gregory Meeks — and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer.
Espaillat said Sillah’s lawyer will file an emergency habeas corpus seeking his release.
“When families are divided, America is weakened,” Espaillat said. “It makes absolutely no sense for this family, this little girl, to be missing her father, when she could be stronger with her father right next to her. This is not the way it should be. When families are divided, America hurts. America weeps.”