Sackets Harbor, New York - advocates and lawmakers have expressed outrage over the US Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) detention of a mother and her three children last week at a dairy farm in Sackets Harbor, New York.
A mother and her three children were detained by US Immigration Customs and Enforcement in Sackets Harbor, New York, and transferred to Texas. © IMAGO / Depositphotos
On March 27, federal agents detained the mother and students before school in Sackets Harbor – the town where Trump's "border czar" Tom Homan lives – while targeting another man on the farm on charges of child pornography.
The family, which included a third-grader, was transferred to the Karnes County Detention Facility in Texas, according to the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC).
"We are supposed to live in a nation of laws, but while this family was correctly navigating the immigration system and attending their immigration court hearings, they were instead taken by ICE agents and sent thousands of miles away from their home and community," NYIC President and CEO Murad Awawdeh said in a .
The detentions have raised concerns about due process rights, particularly for children, amid Donald Trump's escalated mass detentions and deportations.
"At Sackets Harbor Central School District, we view ourselves as a family, and right now, some of our family members are hurting. We are hurting because ICE took three students and their mother away from our community," said Superintendent Jennifer Gaffney.
"The safety and well-being of our students will always be our top priority, and we will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to ensure their return back home, to our school and community."
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has called for the return of the family detained by ICE in Sackets Harbor. © MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP
The children's detentions and transfer to Texas have sparked widespread demands for the family's return.
"There is absolutely no justification for masked ICE agents to rip an innocent family – including a child in the third grade – from their home," New York Governor Kathy Hochul .
"I'll work with anyone to crack down on violent criminals. But I want this family returned to New York & ICE needs to immediately answer for these actions," she added.
Although Trump has sought to justify his deportations by linking crime and immigration, many of the people detained by ICE in recent weeks have no criminal record. Contrary to the president's rhetoric, that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than are people born in the US.
"There is no justice in kidnapping people from the safety of their homes and communities, let alone children in elementary school and their parents," United We Dream said in a .
"The abduction of these three students, their mother, and other community members of Sackets Harbor is a reminder that children, students, and families all across the country are the ones paying the price for ICE's mass detention and deportation rampage."
"ICE's violent pursuit of mass detention and deportations has wreaked havoc and chaos. There is no time to waste, to risk and potentially end another child’s freedom to learn and thrive in the places they call home. We demand the release of this family and an end to all ICE abductions now!"
The Democratic Committee of Jefferson County has organized a in support of the detained family on Saturday, April 5, beginning at 2:00 PM at the Sackets Harbor Visitor Center.
