A mother and her three children were detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and taken to a Texas detention facility, sparking outrage.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, alongside advocacy groups and local school leaders, expressed concern about the development. The mother and her children were taken into federal custody amid President Donald Trump's efforts to deport hundreds of immigrants without any court proceedings or criminal charges.
Mother and Three Kids Detained by ICE
The New York Immigration Coalition is a non-profit organization that works to campaign for immigrant rights. It was the one that confirmed the unidentified family, which included a student in third grade, was detained by ICE at a dairy farm in Sackets Harbor, New York.
The authorities then transferred the family to the Karnes County Detention Facility in Texas, which is roughly 1,800 miles from where they were. Murad Awawdeh, the group's president and CEO, said that it was horrifying that the kids and their mother were taken from their home and just vanished, according to NBC News.
Awadeh added that the family that was detained was "correctly navigating the immigration system and attending their immigration court hearings." He argued that Trump and Tom Homan are simply "acting fully outside the law."
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Following the development, neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) replied to requests for comments about the seizure of the family. Residents of Sackets Harbor plan a rally in the town to call for the mother and her children's release from custody.
Gov. Hochul called the detention of the mother and her three children "just plain cruel," and she immediately called on ICE to return the family to her state. It comes as the DHS, ICE, and other federal law enforcement agencies have started operations in parts of New York to enforce immigration law on Mar. 24, 2025, CBS News reported.
Donald Trump's Immigration Efforts
Awadeh added that the United States is supposed to be a nation of laws, but the family, despite navigating the proper immigration channels, was arrested by ICE agents. Hochul said that she is instead in favor of deporting violent criminals and not innocent families.
Sackets Harbor Superintendent Jennifer Gaffney said that law enforcement officials were executing a warrant for a person who was allegedly involved in a crime when they took custody of the mother and her three children.
She added that the kids taken by ICE agents were classmates and were part of the fabric of the school community. Gaffney echoed Hochul's calls for the family to be returned to their home, as per Syracuse.
