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Recent Quarterly Meeting - July 19, 2025 - Materials Available
NYC Quakers
Activism & Witness

Rally for NYC High School Student Taken by ICE

A rally and press conference was held to protest the ICE detention of Mamadou “Mouctar” Diallo, a student at a public high school with ties to NYC Quakers.

Close up of a hand made sign "FREE MOUCTAR NOW" with photos of a smiling young African man.
August 14th, 2025
  • Close up of a hand made sign "FREE MOUCTAR NOW" with photos of a smiling young African man.
  • Katherine Alford of Morningside Meeting, and from Brooklyn Frontiers High School, Maria Sandoval, Assistant Principal Special Education, and Alona Cohen, Principal, talking before the rally on Aug 14 2025.
  • A table full of signs created by Brooklyn Frontiers High School staff: "Free Mouctar Now," "We Stand with Mouctar," "Justice Can't Wait," "Students Belong in CLASS Not in Custody," "Bring Him Home!"
  • NYC Councilmember for the area that includes Brooklyn Meetinghouse and Brooklyn Frontiers High School, Lincoln Restler, speaks at the Aug. 14 2025 press conference for Mouctar Diallo
  • A screen shot of a video of the Aug. 14, 2025 rally and press conference protesting Mamadou "Mouctar" Diallo's detention by ICE. Katherine Alford of Morningside Meeting is speaking.

NYC Quakers joined immigrant rights activists, educators, and politicians at a press conference this morning, August 14, 2025, in protest of a NYC high school student being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The press conference, arranged by City Councilmember Lincoln Restler's staff, was held outside the Tweed Courthouse at City Hall. (read the Gothamist article.)

Last week Mamadou “Mouctar” Diallo, an NYC high school student at Brooklyn Frontiers (112 Schermerhorn St, Brooklyn) who has participated in programs at the Brooklyn Meetinghouse, was taken by ICE agents after making a required court appearance. Mouctar is a 20 year old asylum seeker from Guinea who loves cooking, is an Audubon Society member, and is here in the US without his family. He was originally detained at Federal Plaza in NYC but has been moved to the Pike County Correctional Facility in Pennsylvania.

Quakers have a connection with Mouctar. New York Quarterly Meeting staff and friends have been partnering with Brooklyn Frontiers high school over the past year, hosting their cooking classes at Brooklyn Meeting and getting to know the students and staff. The school is a remarkably nurturing place, a "transfer" school that serves students who are missing credits and need support to finish earning their high school diploma. 

Katherine Alford of Morningside Meeting spoke at the press conference; her speech is copied below. You can watch her speak at time stamp 25:50 in this video of the rally.

My name is Katherine Alford. I am a Friend, also known as a Quaker. Friends’ core belief is that the Light of God lives in every person. 

We have a long, proudly held tradition of support for immigrants. We live into the shared testimony of Love thy Neighbor. 

Mouctar Diallo, is a student at a DOE high school that runs in a Quaker building in downtown Brooklyn. The school is a cherished neighbor to our Brooklyn Meetinghouse, a house of Worship. 

Mouctar attends programs in our Meetinghouse such as a culinary program, where he learns to cook and shares food and fellowship with students and Friends. 

He is a welcome member of our community. 

Friends are outraged that he has been arbitrarily detained while following the legal process for asylum. 

We stand with other faith leaders to challenge the Trump administration’s cruel immigration agenda.

We must step up to defend the human rights and human dignity of all no matter their immigration status. 

We call for established due process for, and the immediate release of Mouctar Diallo. 

In friendship, NY Quakers

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