Nigerian Girl, 8, Released After Year in INS Custody in Miami
By Brendan Farrington, Associated Press
Originally published by The Associated Press, August 11, 2001
MIAMI (AP) — An 8-year-old Nigerian girl who spent more than a year in detention while immigration officials searched for her relatives has been released to a cousin in Connecticut.
The girl's father helped authorities find the cousin, a married woman with children who is a legal resident and a state children's services investigator, said Immigration and Naturalization Service spokeswoman Maria Elena Garcia.
"There's nothing like being home with a family member," Garcia said.
The girl, whose name was not disclosed but was nicknamed Fega, was abandoned by her parents, her lawyers say. She arrived in the United States alone with false papers in May 2000.
INS officials have not been able to find her mother; The New York Times reported in June that the mother allegedly won't come forward to claim her child because she fears deportation.
Her father was found in London, and he later returned to Nigeria, where he worked with the U.S. consulate to verify the girl's identity and help find a relative in the United States.
Fega had been held at Boystown, an emergency shelter for immigrant children run by Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami. She was taken to Miami because New York does not have a juvenile detention facility for such cases, Garcia said.
The shelter held a farewell party for Fega on Thursday when the cousin, whose name was not disclosed, came to pick her up.
"She was very well taken care of in Boystown," Garcia said. "She was schooled, she was fed, she was read bedtime stories at night, taken out on outings. We knew she was being well cared for." The girl learned some English during her stay, Garcia said.
"She's a dolly," she said. "Certainly the cousin in my opinion is very fortunate to have little Fega in her family."
It is rare for a child to be held at the shelter for that long. The average stay is 16 days, said Christina Kleiser, a lawyer at the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center who represented Fega.
"If you can just imagine 15 months for an 8-year-old watching kids come and go and having no one come for you. It was just taking its toll," Kleiser said. "She was constantly asking me 'When can I leave? When can I leave?"
Fega often asked the lawyer during weekly visits to take her home, Kleiser said.
"It's very sad, but I'm elated she's been released and she can only go up from here. Not having a stable family is something no child should go through."
The cousin had met with the girl only once, but followed the visit with many phone calls.
"They bonded immediately," Garcia said.
Fega is still considered to be an illegal alien, but can remain in the country indefinitely while with her relatives, who can seek residency status for her, Garcia said.
