On Thursday, March 27th, a mother and her three children, one third grader and two high school students, were abducted and taken into custody by ICE officials. They are originally from Guatemala, and the raid took place in the small Republican-leaning town of Sackets Harbor in upstate New York. The town is the childhood and now vacation home of the “border czar” and former director of ICE, Tom Homan. The family was taken into custody at a petting zoo and dairy farm where the mother has worked for more than a decade. Witnesses described masked federal agents handcuffing the children and putting them in a van.
ICE officials allege they were conducting the raid targeting a South African man charged with trafficking images of child sexual abuse, but picked up the family in addition to three other undocumented people in the raid. The Department of Homeland Security alleges that the children were detained as potential victims of sexual exploitation.
The family was never charged with a crime, had an active asylum case pending in the courts, and were in regular contact with the authorities. But three days after the raid they were moved to a privately run detention facility in Karnes County, Texas. The fact that they were taken to a detention center thousands of miles away exposes the lie that the abduction of the children had anything to do with protecting their safety.
Similar to Mahmoud Khalil, who was abducted from New York City and taken to Jena, Louisiana, or Rumeysa Ozturk, who was abducted from Boston, Massachusetts and taken to Basile, Louisiana, ICE likes to take people thousands of miles away. This is a way to take advantage of courts they think will be less sympathetic as well as to cut people off from whatever support networks that they are a part of.
In Sackets Harbor the single K-12 school, which has about 400 students, was shaken by the raid and subsequent absence of the three students. One social studies teacher commented, “When there is an empty desk in the classroom, it is very evident, and we miss them.” The family was both known and well liked by their peers and teachers.
This story of an ICE raid could have been told anywhere, in communities all across the country. Since Trump took office there have been around 600 ICE arrests every day. Many of those arrested have had no prior criminal record. Fear is enveloping immigrant communities nationwide.
But what is somewhat unique about this situation is the response of many in the community who decided to stand their ground and fight for the release of the family.
Since the school is a hub for the community, students and teachers came together to fight for their missing community members. Activists within the teachers’ union played a key role in organizing a rally. In the lead up to the rally, organizers received many hateful and negative comments on social media but they remained steadfast in following through with the rally.
Although the town has only 1,400 residents, on Saturday, April 5th roughly 1,000 teachers, parents, students and neighbors rallied! Protesters rallied outside of Homan’s house, holding signs that said, “Return the Children, Deport Homan!” The small Republican leaning town showed that they were willing to show up for members of their community.
There was a small group of ICE supporting counter-protesters who attended the demonstration to heckle the protestors, but a group of elderly women surrounded them and made them look pathetic.
On Monday, April 7th, it was announced that the family would be released from custody and able to return home to Sackets Harbor. At a time when it can be overwhelming to think about all the assaults on our lives, it can feel impossible to imagine any struggle that is able to adequately defend ourselves. But the struggle of this small community is an important reminder that the main way that we lose our power is when we are led to believe that we don’t have any. But the people of Sackets Harbor reminded us that we do have power, and that we can stand up for ourselves and each other!
