Detained Immigrant Family from Sackets Harbor Released from ICE Custody

Mother and three children taken by ICE last week en route home

SACKETS HARBOR, NY — On March 27, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents conducted a raid near North Harbor Dairy Farms in Sackets Harbor, New York. While agents were conducting a raid on the farm, they entered another home on the property without a judicial warrant and detained a mother and three children, aged 9, 15, and 18. The family was subsequently transferred thousands of miles away, to a detention facility in Texas. 

Today, after mounting public pressure and a historic rally in Sackets Harbor on Saturday, ICE released the family, who are now on their way home.

In response, the New York Civil Liberties Union issued the following statement, attributable to Senior Education Strategist Mabel Tso:

“It is a huge relief that this family is on their way back home to Sackets Harbor. No one — let alone a mother with three children — should ever have to experience ICE agents busting down your door, ripping you from home, and sending you thousands of miles away to a detention facility. It’s a level of inhumanity and cruelty that sends shockwaves. 

“The outrageous events of the past week do make one thing clear: When people in every corner of New York see the real, human impact of ICE’s cruelty and Trump’s mass deportation machine, they mobilize, speak out, and fight back. At the rally on Saturday in Sackets Harbor, I saw dozens of teachers, families, organizers, and residents from all over marching together, chanting the same thing: Bring this family back home to our community where they belong. 

“Families shouldn’t be torn apart, kids shouldn’t be ripped out of class, and people shouldn’t be transported thousands of miles from their home. Trump and ICE must stop terrorizing immigrant families — and New Yorkers must keep fighting back.

“Because when we come together, defend our neighbors, and speak out against hate and extremism, the bullies roll over.” 

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