Photo Courtesy of ICE
The man was set to be deported back to Senegal when he escaped custody at JFK and fled in a cab.
By Michael V. Cusenza
A deportee who escaped from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody last Tuesday at John F. Kennedy International Airport while waiting to board a flight back to his native Senegal was caught by ICE agents in Chicago on Friday, according to federal officials and published reports.
Mohamadou Lamine Mbacke, 31, who was being removed from the U.S. following a felony firearms conviction in Detroit, dashed from a gate area—and the purview of three ICE deportation officers—into an idling cab that sped away from the transportation hub.
According to the complaint provided by the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s Office, Mbacke was scheduled to travel from the U.S. with three federal agents. They escorted him on the earlier flight from Detroit Metropolitan Airport to JFK and were waiting to board the connecting flight to Senegal when Mbacke “asked for and received permission to sit approximately eight to 10 rows away from the deportation officers,” said ICE Officer Brian Figueiredo in a sworn statement. “Shortly thereafter, without authorization from deportation officers, the defendant departed the gate area. He did not return to the gate area and has not been found.”
Mbacke was found three days later in a Starbucks near Chicago Union Station.
