BUFFALO, N.Y. — Charged with spitting on guards at a federal detention facility nearly four years ago, Samuel Boima is still locked up. And there’s no end in sight. He’s a schizophrenic with convictions for armed robbery and assault. A final deportation order has been issued, an appeal denied. Sierra Leone, Boima’s native country, has granted travel documents.
Federal prosecutors in Buffalo are keeping him in the United States, according to a federal judge who has urged the U.S. attorney’s office to drop charges of assaulting federal officers so deportation proceedings can resume.
Boima, in May 2020, spat while two guards at the Buffalo Federal Detention Center in Batavia were leaving his cell, with spittle landing on clothing and a guard’s neck, a deportation officer wrote in charging papers.
