Adama Bah, a 16-year-old girl of Guinean origin, was arrested, detained, questioned by the FBI, required to wear an electronic ankle bracelet and follow a 10pm curfew on accusations that she is an “imminent threat” to national security. The FBI provided no evidence of the threat she posed. They refuse to discuss her case.
She has now been released, but because she was arrested on immigration grounds (she believed she had legal status, but her childhood visa had run out), she now faces deportation — to a country where female genital cutting is commonplace, and where she will likely be forced to submit to the procedure.
Her father, a cab driver, was already deported because his visa had lapsed. Her mother, who is illiterate and speaks little English, lost the trinket stand that she ran, leaving the family without any income. Adama is now in charge of caring for her four siblings, who are all American citizens.
Her hearing is today.