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Two 16-year-old girls from New York City were arrested last month and charged with immigration violations after the F.B.I. asserted that they intended to become suicide bombers, according to a government document. A spokesman for one of their families, however, said the accusation was false and said the government had probably misinterpreted a school essay written by one of the girls.
The girls are both in the country illegally, one born in Guinea and the other from Bangladesh, and are being held in a family detention center in Leesport, in southeastern Pennsylvania, according to the document, provided by a federal agent. They were arrested on March 24, and one appeared at an immigration hearing on April 1 in York, Pa.
The document, which describes the background of the case, said the F.B.I. believed the girls presented "an imminent threat to the security of the United States based upon evidence that they plan to be suicide bombers." It does not describe the nature of that evidence.
But one federal official, not connected to the F.B.I., expressed skepticism that the teenagers represented a real risk of a suicide bombing.
"There are doubts about these claims, and no evidence has been found that such a plot was in the works," said the government official in Washington, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case involves a pending legal matter. A senior law enforcement official in New York voiced the same doubts.
The case is the latest run-in between immigrants, both legal and illegal, and federal officials who have become much more aggressive in acting against potential terrorist threats in the post-9/11 world. While advocates for immigrants have said that many innocent people are being swept up in antiterror efforts, government officials have said their vigilance is necessary.
Adem Carroll, a community activist with the Islamic Circle of North America who first approached this reporter about the case on behalf of one of the girls' parents, said the case appeared to be "an investigation that's gotten out of hand, like a lot of other so-called terror investigations." He added, "I'm confident that things will be cleared up."
Manny Van Pelt, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of the Homeland Security Department, would not elaborate on the investigation.
"ICE special agents have arrested two juveniles on administrative immigration violations, and both remain in ICE custody," said Mr. Van Pelt. Citing "longstanding policy regarding juveniles in our custody," he declined to comment further.
The Guinean girl entered the United States with her family in 1990 on a visitor visa, according to the document, and lives with her parents along with four siblings who are United States citizens. She and her parents have overstayed their original visas, it said, and her father has been arrested on immigration charges.
The Bangladeshi girl entered the country in 1994, according to the document, and her mother unsuccessfully applied for asylum. Two of her three siblings were born here.
According to Mr. Carroll, the parents of the Bangladeshi girl, who live in Queens Village, went to the local police station house several weeks ago, seeking a complaint against their teenage daughter, who had defied their authority. The family dispute was soon resolved, and they then tried to withdraw the complaint, which they believe set off the investigation.
Police detectives, and then federal immigration agents, searched her belongings and confiscated her computer and the essays that she had written as part of a home schooling program, according to the family. One essay concerned suicide. The family maintained that the essay asserted that suicide is against Islamic law, but it led investigators to question her sharply about her political beliefs.
Detectives from the precinct went to the girl's home to question her about two weeks before her arrest, Mr. Carroll said, asking about her absence from a public high school since September. The mother said her daughter would be schooled at home and was seeking a high school equivalency degree because of conflicts between her Islamic dress code - a full veil - and the school's dress code.
According to the family, the detectives, who had no warrant, searched the house and the teenager's belongings. The next day, the mother received a phone call from one of the detectives, a woman, saying that her daughter had extremist beliefs and promoted concepts like suicide bombing. Both mother and daughter denied the allegation, saying that she was against such ideas.
Last night, a 20-year-old woman friend of the Bangladeshi teenager said she had known the young woman for three years and was close to her. Told of the allegations, she responded in disbelief, "That's crazy."
The girls are both in the country illegally, one born in Guinea and the other from Bangladesh, and are being held in a family detention center in Leesport, in southeastern Pennsylvania, according to the document, provided by a federal agent. They were arrested on March 24, and one appeared at an immigration hearing on April 1 in York, Pa.
The document, which describes the background of the case, said the F.B.I. believed the girls presented "an imminent threat to the security of the United States based upon evidence that they plan to be suicide bombers." It does not describe the nature of that evidence.
But one federal official, not connected to the F.B.I., expressed skepticism that the teenagers represented a real risk of a suicide bombing.
"There are doubts about these claims, and no evidence has been found that such a plot was in the works," said the government official in Washington, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case involves a pending legal matter. A senior law enforcement official in New York voiced the same doubts.
The case is the latest run-in between immigrants, both legal and illegal, and federal officials who have become much more aggressive in acting against potential terrorist threats in the post-9/11 world. While advocates for immigrants have said that many innocent people are being swept up in antiterror efforts, government officials have said their vigilance is necessary.
Adem Carroll, a community activist with the Islamic Circle of North America who first approached this reporter about the case on behalf of one of the girls' parents, said the case appeared to be "an investigation that's gotten out of hand, like a lot of other so-called terror investigations." He added, "I'm confident that things will be cleared up."
Manny Van Pelt, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of the Homeland Security Department, would not elaborate on the investigation.
"ICE special agents have arrested two juveniles on administrative immigration violations, and both remain in ICE custody," said Mr. Van Pelt. Citing "longstanding policy regarding juveniles in our custody," he declined to comment further.
The Guinean girl entered the United States with her family in 1990 on a visitor visa, according to the document, and lives with her parents along with four siblings who are United States citizens. She and her parents have overstayed their original visas, it said, and her father has been arrested on immigration charges.
The Bangladeshi girl entered the country in 1994, according to the document, and her mother unsuccessfully applied for asylum. Two of her three siblings were born here.
According to Mr. Carroll, the parents of the Bangladeshi girl, who live in Queens Village, went to the local police station house several weeks ago, seeking a complaint against their teenage daughter, who had defied their authority. The family dispute was soon resolved, and they then tried to withdraw the complaint, which they believe set off the investigation.
Police detectives, and then federal immigration agents, searched her belongings and confiscated her computer and the essays that she had written as part of a home schooling program, according to the family. One essay concerned suicide. The family maintained that the essay asserted that suicide is against Islamic law, but it led investigators to question her sharply about her political beliefs.
Detectives from the precinct went to the girl's home to question her about two weeks before her arrest, Mr. Carroll said, asking about her absence from a public high school since September. The mother said her daughter would be schooled at home and was seeking a high school equivalency degree because of conflicts between her Islamic dress code - a full veil - and the school's dress code.
According to the family, the detectives, who had no warrant, searched the house and the teenager's belongings. The next day, the mother received a phone call from one of the detectives, a woman, saying that her daughter had extremist beliefs and promoted concepts like suicide bombing. Both mother and daughter denied the allegation, saying that she was against such ideas.
Last night, a 20-year-old woman friend of the Bangladeshi teenager said she had known the young woman for three years and was close to her. Told of the allegations, she responded in disbelief, "That's crazy."
Which point? Are you reading the postings backwards?