Teranga Academy graduate in ICE custody, family and school staff show concern

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Fugees Family, an educational nonprofit for immigrant and refugee families and children, has a partnership in Bowling Green with the city’s independent school district.

The partnership between the two brought forth Teranga Academy, but now, one of its graduates is living a very different life.

Ernesto Manuel-Andres, who just graduated from Teranga Academy three weeks ago, is now in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody after being detained on June 4, along with his father at their apartment complex. Fugees Family CEO Luma Mufleh said there was no reason for Manuel-Andres to be detained, given the paperwork he provided ICE.

Mufleh said the 18-year-old has his Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, which is a legal designation granted to youth who have survived abandonment, neglect or abuse, as well as Deferred Action from the Department of Homeland Security, which legally protects him from deportation. Mufleh says she feels Ernesto might just be a collateral arrest spawned by White House chief of staff Stephen Miller’s push on ICE to perform “3,000 arrests per day.”

Since being detained, he has been moved from Grayson County Jail to Laurel County Jail and ultimately ended up in the Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana.

Mufleh said it’s a heartbreaking situation, being that this is not a child in one of the many communities she’s consulted for, but someone who has grown up through her program for the last three years.

Executive director Albert Mbanfu of the International Center of Kentucky also spoke to News 40 on the incident.

Mbanfu said, “To take a young man who has just graduated high school who probably has dreams and aspirations for himself and his family, is just not human, ” as he thinks back on his journey to the U.S. over 20 years ago.

Both Mbanfu and Mufleh said they wish the Trump administration would stick to original campaign promises, going after violent offenders who are not here legally, rather than looping in peacefully living refugees and immigrants. Mbanfu said, “99.99% of immigrants are not out causing problems. No one would decide to leave their home country unless they had to; it’s not an easy thing to do.”

Mbanfu said, “People are scared. Immigrants are being very careful about where they go, and the communities will come to feel the loss of business if this continues.”

Mufleh has started a GoFundMe in hopes of covering Ernesto’s bail and other expenses associated with this event. You can view the GoFundMe here.

News 40 reached out to the Bowling Green Independent School District, and officials did not provide comment at this time.