Maria Posadenti of Safe Passage Project testifies on ACS custody case

Thank you.

Thank you for this opportunity today.

My name is Maria Posadenti, and I'm a staff attorney at Safe Passage Project, a nonprofit that provides free legal representation to immigrant children facing deportation in New York City and Long Island.

We're grateful that city officials are taking steps to ensure that city agencies protect the immigrant New Yorkers who rely on them.

And we want to warn that more must be done to ensure that unaccompanied immigrant children in the custody of New York Administration for Children's Services, ACS, do not fall through the cracks.

I have represented a young person who I will call Dee since January 2026.

Dee is an unaccompanied minor who was found to be a destitute child and placed in ACS custody after his abusive older brother kicked him out of his home.

I met Dee after he was ordered deported because ACS neglected to inform the caseworkers at his placement facility that he was scheduled for an immigration court hearing, which he missed.

We petitioned for special immigrant juvenile status while we moved to reopen his immigration court case.

ACS moved him from a Manhattan placement to a group home on Long Island where he repeatedly expressed feeling unsafe and unhappy.

We also learned he had a pending criminal case in Suffolk County, which made him vulnerable to being turned over to ICE.

We warned ACS about this and advocated for him to be moved back to New York City.

Sadly, our fears were realized.

In May, Suffolk police took Dee from his group home to a police station for questioning where Ice waited outside to arrest him.

Ice claimed that Dee was an adult, not a 16-year-old child, despite the overwhelming evidence presented to them proving his age.

Ice held Dee in adult detention for...

for over three months while we filed a habeas petition to get him released.

Finally, in August, ICE quietly moved Dee to a shelter for immigrant minors without conceding their error.

Dee suffered immeasurable harm during his months in adult ICE detention, including being attacked by other detainees and being placed in solitary confinement.

Had ACS placed D within NYC instead of out on Long Island, I believe that the city's measures to limit information sharing between local police and ICE would have stopped him

from being turned over to immigration officials, in turn saving him from months of suffering as a child in adult ICE custody.

I urge the members of this committee and the mayor's administration to remember Dee's story as you work to implement the findings of this audit and take concrete steps to ensure that children in ACS custody like Dee are truly protected.