By Brian Lewis
June 7, 2017 | 3:22pm | Updated
What started as a few probing questions about a suspicious New Jersey high school basketball program has become an investigation by federal immigration authorities.
New Jersey’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement office — a division of the Department of Homeland Security — has opened a new investigation of Paterson Eastside’s hoops programs, according to NJ Advance Media. ICE officials are concentrating on how the program has been fed international players over the past six years and how the teenagers came — or were trafficked — to New Jersey.
Four months ago, NJ Advance Media reported players from Africa, South America and Puerto Rico had been brought stateside to play for Eastside’s teams since at least 2011, and that boys coach Juan Griles was housing — but apparently barely feeding — at least six of them. With the school district unable to issue proper immigration documents, they’re all at risk of deportation.
ICE public affairs officer Alvin Phillips did not immediately return phone calls or emails from The Post. But ICE’s involvement likely means multiple federal and multiple state agencies — including the attorney general and the Division of Child Protection and Permanency (DCP&P) — are or will be investigating as well.
Blessing Ejiofor told NJ Advance Media she came to the United States from Nigeria in 2014 to attend Evelyn Mack Academy in Charlotte, but upon landing at JFK Airport was greeted by Eastside girls coach Ray Lyde Jr. — whom she didn’t even know — and rerouted to Paterson. Now, despite having earned a college scholarship to Vanderbilt, she has not been allowed back into the US since going home to try to fix the immigration violations.
“I am innocent and didn’t know any better,” Ejiofor said in the report. “I should have been properly advised by those [at the school] and told the implications because I didn’t even know I was out of status. No one ever told me, and I wish someone did.”
The report also claims Eastside girls player Andrea Aquino, who is from Paraguay, bounced from home to home after being lured to Paterson. She didn’t have any money, health insurance or even women’s sanitary items, which led Eastside officials to report the situation to DCP&P.
DCP&P investigated the living conditions and safety of the athletes while they attended the school. The Division of Criminal Justice in the Office of the Attorney General contacted the school last month to set up interviews. Representatives from Eastside are slated to appear before the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s Controversies Committee on June 13.
http://nypost.com/2017/06/07/sordid-high-school-basketball-scandal-now-in-ices-crosshairs/
June 7, 2017 | 3:22pm | Updated
What started as a few probing questions about a suspicious New Jersey high school basketball program has become an investigation by federal immigration authorities.
New Jersey’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement office — a division of the Department of Homeland Security — has opened a new investigation of Paterson Eastside’s hoops programs, according to NJ Advance Media. ICE officials are concentrating on how the program has been fed international players over the past six years and how the teenagers came — or were trafficked — to New Jersey.
Four months ago, NJ Advance Media reported players from Africa, South America and Puerto Rico had been brought stateside to play for Eastside’s teams since at least 2011, and that boys coach Juan Griles was housing — but apparently barely feeding — at least six of them. With the school district unable to issue proper immigration documents, they’re all at risk of deportation.
ICE public affairs officer Alvin Phillips did not immediately return phone calls or emails from The Post. But ICE’s involvement likely means multiple federal and multiple state agencies — including the attorney general and the Division of Child Protection and Permanency (DCP&P) — are or will be investigating as well.
Blessing Ejiofor told NJ Advance Media she came to the United States from Nigeria in 2014 to attend Evelyn Mack Academy in Charlotte, but upon landing at JFK Airport was greeted by Eastside girls coach Ray Lyde Jr. — whom she didn’t even know — and rerouted to Paterson. Now, despite having earned a college scholarship to Vanderbilt, she has not been allowed back into the US since going home to try to fix the immigration violations.
“I am innocent and didn’t know any better,” Ejiofor said in the report. “I should have been properly advised by those [at the school] and told the implications because I didn’t even know I was out of status. No one ever told me, and I wish someone did.”
The report also claims Eastside girls player Andrea Aquino, who is from Paraguay, bounced from home to home after being lured to Paterson. She didn’t have any money, health insurance or even women’s sanitary items, which led Eastside officials to report the situation to DCP&P.
DCP&P investigated the living conditions and safety of the athletes while they attended the school. The Division of Criminal Justice in the Office of the Attorney General contacted the school last month to set up interviews. Representatives from Eastside are slated to appear before the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s Controversies Committee on June 13.
http://nypost.com/2017/06/07/sordid-high-school-basketball-scandal-now-in-ices-crosshairs/
