Federal judge orders deportation of Syracuse hospital trainee Mohamed Fofana

Mohamed Fofana was about to join the staff at Upstate University Hospital when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested him in Syracuse’s Hawley-Green neighborhood, stripping one more trained worker from a hospital system already under strain.

Fofana had finished weeks of training and was supposed to start work the next day. Instead, he spent months in ICE custody, first at the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia and later at a detention center in South Texas, as his case moved through immigration court. A federal judge ordered him deported to Guinea after a hearing in May, and the deadline to appeal was set for June 15.

For coworkers and union supporters, the ruling landed as more than a personal tragedy. Upstate Medical University describes itself as the largest employer in Central New York, and the hospital system has become a visible front line in the region’s fight to keep enough workers on the floor. Fofana’s removal from the pipeline means Syracuse loses someone who had already completed nursing school in Guinea and had worked in a small hospital emergency room there before coming to the United States.

His cousins, Lasan Kenneh and Materjay Kenneh, said he arrived in the U.S. less than two years ago seeking safety and was “fleeing real danger.” They and his union described him as someone trying to build a nursing career after coming to this country for asylum. Local reporting also said attorneys and a Homeland Security lawyer agreed that he had no criminal history.

Ali Cottrell, president of Civil Service Employees Association Local 615, said the detention fight has left coworkers in fear and uncertainty, especially because Fofana had followed the legal steps to work in a Syracuse hospital. That fear has spread through other hospital trainees and immigrant employees who see their own future in the same pipeline.

The case also echoed other Upstate detentions. In October, two other workers, Alex González and Yan Vázquez, were detained by ICE at an immigration hearing and later won release on bond in February after months in custody. Their cases drew support from coworkers, local activists and then-mayor-elect Sharon Owens, who joined a rally outside the Hanley Federal Building and a candlelight vigil in Clinton Square.

For Syracuse hospitals, the practical impact is immediate: another trained worker lost, another vacancy felt, and another reminder that immigration enforcement can ripple through patient care, staff morale and the region’s ability to hold onto the workers it depends on.