New Allies Bolster Student in His Immigration Struggle

Amadou Ly and his East Harlem teammates won no prizes at the national robotics competition in Atlanta last weekend. But Amadou, 18, who was brought to New York from Senegal at 13 and left to fend for himself a year later, won an outpouring of support for his legal fight against deportation and his dream of going to college.

Scores of strangers who read about his bittersweet success in The New York Times last week called or sent e-mail messages offering to help pay his college tuition and his legal expenses, or even to adopt him if that could help him stay in the United States.

Lawyers gave free advice. Television camera crews followed his every move. And members of Congress drafted letters urging Michael Chertoff, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, to use his discretion to help Amadou onto a path to permanent residency.

"Amadou and his teammates have made New Yorkers proud, and bolstered the evidence that otherwise disadvantaged young people from poor communities can compete in an academic area so badly needed in our country," Representative Charles B. Rangel and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton wrote in a letter to Mr. Chertoff that was released yesterday. "We appeal to you to give him a chance," the letter said. "If he continues on his current path, our country will be the winner."

For years, Amadou had kept his illegal immigration status secret. But his team's unlikely invitation to compete in Atlanta, after beating robotics teams from the city's elite schools, forced him to reveal it: He had no government-issued identification to board a plane, no way to attend the college that had accepted him, and only a slim chance to win a two-year battle against deportation.

While his teammates flew to Atlanta, he set off on an 18-hour journey by train to join them. By the time he arrived, response to the article had unleashed a news media whirlwind.

"I never thought people like a senator would talk about this case," Amadou said yesterday, still overwhelmed by the attention, which included interviews by CNN and NBC's "Today" show, and an hourlong live broadcast he made in French to Senegal from the Georgia Dome, where the East Harlem team joined more than 9,000 high school students from around the country.

"Cameras, newspapers, people that I don't know, people standing up and letting me know that there's help," he said. "I feel good about that, and I'm thankful."

At first, East Harlem Tutorial Program, the after-school organization that started the robot-building team in partnership with Central Park East High School, began collecting donations on Amadou's behalf. But as pledges and inquiries poured in, more formal steps were taken. Donors were asked to write checks to "Amadou Educational Fund," in care of Laura Hirschfeld, Esq., Weil Gotshal, 767 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y., 10153, or to address inquiries to her at [email protected].

High-powered legal advice — much of it contradictory — was still coming in yesterday to Amy Meselson, a Legal Aid lawyer who took Amadou's case less than two weeks ago. She said that she planned to set up a conference call later this week to try to sort out the options, none of them a sure path to legal status.

Amadou's mother brought him from Dakar on a visitor's visa when he was 13, and left him here after it expired in hopes that he could get an American education. He did odd jobs to buy food and school supplies, and took shelter with a family friend who could sign his report card. He was placed in deportation proceedings in November 2004 after he was a passenger in a car accident in Pennsylvania and a state trooper reported him to federal immigration authorities.

The team's coach, Kristian Breton, said Amadou's teammates knew going into the competition that they were part of a story that was bigger than the contest, which was won by an alliance of teams from three schools, including "Robowizards," from McKee Vocational Tech High School on Staten Island.

"Amadou has done so much already, he's going to be successful wherever he goes," said Mr. Breton, who recalled how the Senegalese teenager walked 35 blocks to attend a robotics meeting during the city's transit strike.

"But I would like to see him fulfill every opportunity that he can and he can't do that if he's in Senegal."

"It's a great story," he added, "but it's still being written."