A mom and her 3 kids were detained by ICE last month at a New York dairy farm. They were just released

By Alisha Ebrahimji, CNN

(CNN) — A mother and her three children are on their way back home to New York following their detention by immigration enforcement officials last month at a dairy farm, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Monday.

The third grader, two teenagers and their mother, who have not been named publicly, were taken into custody March 27 as officials carried out a search warrant at the farm for a person accused of having “child sexual abuse materials,” Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, wrote on X Monday.

During the operation at Old McDonald’s Farm in Sackets Harbor, officials “encountered seven additional illegal aliens on the premises,” including the mother and her children,” McLaughlin said.

The mother and her children were taken to the Karnes County Detention Facility in Texas, nearly 1,800 miles away, according to the New York Immigration Coalition.

Their detention comes as the Trump administration continues to tighten the reins on the country’s immigration policies and practices.

Details on why the family was detained in the warrant were not released until Monday.

Government and school officials denounced the move while community members marched through the streets of Sackets Harbor, a village in Jefferson County on Lake Ontario, over the weekend to the home of White House border czar Tom Homan to call for their release, CNN affiliate WWNY reported.

“Our 3 students who were taken by ICE were doing everything right,” Jaime Cook, the principal of Sackets Harbor Central School District, said in a statement on Facebook. “They had declared themselves to immigration judges, attended court on their assigned dates, and were following the legal process. They are not criminals.”

“Our students were put in handcuffs,” Cook told CNN. Asked about reports that the children were handcuffed, McLaughlin said in a statement, “Any claims that a third-grade child was handcuffed are not true. DHS takes its responsibility to protect children seriously.”

Cook learned about the incident from a teacher who tutors one of the teenagers. When the teacher arrived at the family’s home to pick the student up, they noticed a large ICE presence.

The operation wasn’t a raid, Homan told WWNY last week, nearly a month after he told CNN’s Dana Bash “we have got to do more” to increase the number of immigration arrests.

CNN has reached out to Homan on Tuesday for comment.

“During investigations like that, we have to ensure that any children within that area are safe,” Homan said last week. “There’s a process during these investigations where could these children – could that family be a material witness in this horrendous crime? Can they provide information and evidence in this crime? Were they victimized within this crime?”

After 10 days of uncertainty, Jennifer L. Gaffney, the superintendent of Sackets Harbor Central School District, is thrilled the family is returning home and hopes they can collectively work to heal from the “traumatic experience,” she said in an online statement.

“What happened to our students was traumatic and unjust,” Cook said in a statement Tuesday.

“New York has been consistent: we are open to working with federal immigration enforcement to crack down on gang members or violent criminals,” Holchul said following news of the family’s release. “But I will never support cruel actions that rip kids out of school or tear families apart.”

As the family enters “the next phase of navigating their journey through the immigration system,” they are requesting privacy, according to the New York Immigration Coalition.

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