Following the detainment of a woman and three children by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Jefferson County, advocacy groups and supporters gathered at City Hall in Syracuse Wednesday to protest immigration officers in New York.
“We have seen fathers taken, detained on their way to drop their children at school in Fulton. Here in Syracuse, we had a father taken, leaving his 13-year-old U.S. citizen son with no family here,” said Jessica Maxwell, executive director of the Workers Center of Central New York.
The Workers Center of Central New York is an organization that focuses on workplace and economic justice for low-wage workers, particularly on farms, hotels and restaurants. Members of the Workers Center rely on the organization for support.
“Just yesterday morning, we got a call from Oswego, a woman who was driving several workers to a packing plant got pulled over. As far as we can tell, maybe as many as 11 workers were detained,” Maxwell said.
ICE did not immediately respond to questions regarding detainments, including the one in Sackets Harbor.
"I think overall, their strategy of getting people who are here illegally, committing crimes out of the country is one that we certainly support," said Onondaga County Executive, Ryan McMahon, during a press conference.
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that nearly 50% of all farmworkers lack legal status. Maxwell said most workers are immigrants, including a mix of documented and undocumented workers.
“A lot of our members are dairy workers. I will guarantee you, on the farms, 90% of our farmworkers on dairies are immigrant workers. This will be absolutely devastating,” Maxwell said.
New York farmers have expressed their concerns over the increase in deportations and what impacts it could have on their already strained labor force. Mike McMahon, a dairy farmer in Homer, said dairies rely primarily on undocumented workers because there isn’t a federal program like the seasonal H-2A program to help them bring workers here legally year-round.
Agriculture is not the only industry that relies on immigrant workers, Maxwell said. Construction, restaurants, hotels, packing plants and cleaning organizations all often rely on immigrant labor.
“I was not kidding and I’m not exaggerating when I say that all of us are going to businesses locally that depend heavily on undocumented immigrant labor, and that’s where I say I think we need to be honest. We need to not be hypocrites, and we have to find ways to respect people’s basic human rights. We need them in our communities,” Maxwell said.
Mohammad Ali Seraji, manager of community engagement for the New York Immigration Coalition, said many ICE agents know that workers know their rights so rather than going to their homes, they pick them up on their way to and from work or school.
“You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to refuse search, and you have the right to know why you are being detained,” Seraji said. “If we make more of an effort to make sure everyone of all ages knows their rights and knows that in this country we have specific expectations for our interactions with law enforcement, that is the only way that we can keep them from overriding them.”