OPINION AND ORDER Plaintiff Amadou Barry, a citizen of Guinea, brings this action against the United States pursuant to the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), 28 U.S.C. §§2671 et seq., seeking damages arising out of his initial confinement in an adult detention facility after he presented himself at the U.S.-Mexico border, seeking asylum, in October 2017. Although plaintiff told U.S. Customs &Border Protection (CBP) that he was a minor, and presented a copy of his Guinean birth certificate, showing that he was 17 years old, he was not immediately believed, in part because while in route to the U.S. he had represented to Panamanian officials that he was 25 years old. After four months in the adult detention facility, plaintiff was transferred to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), and then, after another three months, he was released to join a cousin in New York. Once in New York, plaintiff enrolled in high school, graduated, and matriculated at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he has resided on campus (during the academic year) since August 2021. Now before the Court is defendant’s motion to dismiss plaintiff’s Complaint pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6) or, in the alternative, to transfer venue to the Southern District of Texas pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §1404(a). (Dkt. 23.) For the reasons that follow, the Court grants the transfer motion and consequently does not reach the motion to dismiss. I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND Plaintiff was born on July 8, 2000, in Guinea, Africa. Compl. (Dkt. 1) 22. In November 2016, after he was briefly detained and beaten by Guinean police, because of his affiliation with a minority political party, he fled from Guinea to Brazil. Id. 23. Seven months later, he began traveling with a group of African men from Brazil to the United States, in the hopes of reaching and living with a cousin in New York City. Id. 24. On the advice of his travel companions, plaintiff lied about his age during the journey, fearing that he would be detained if he were revealed as a minor. Id. 24. Thus, he informed Panamanian authorities on July 22, 2017 that he was born on July 8, 1992 — which would have made him 25 years old — when in fact he was 17. Id. 25. When plaintiff reached Mexico in August 2017, he contacted his father in Guinea and asked him to get a copy of his birth certificate for use at the U.S. border. Compl. 26. Plaintiff had lost his passport while in Brazil. Id. Plaintiff’s father obtained the birth certificate, scanned it, and emailed the scanned copy to one of plaintiff’s travel companions. Id. 27. The document bore an official seal and signature, and accurately reflected that plaintiff was born on July 8, 2000. Id. 29. When plaintiff entered the United States at Hidalgo, Texas, on October 17, 2017, he presented a printout of the scanned image to the first CBP officer he encountered and told the officer, in his initial interview, that he was 17. Id.
31-32. He then executed a sworn statement reiterating that he was 17, describing the basis of his flight from Guinea, and explaining why he had lied about his age to Panamanian officials. Id.
