AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Today, in upstate New York, many people in the tiny town of Sackets Harbor are celebrating the return of a migrant family detained last month by federal immigration police. The mother and three children, who don't have legal status, were taken during a nighttime raid on a dairy farm, and they were sent to a detention facility in Texas. Now, the governor of New York says the family has been freed after a protest march over the weekend and after both Republican and Democratic politicians lobbied for their return. NPR's Brian Mann is in Sackets Harbor, which is near the U.S.-Canada border. Hi, Brian.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.
CHANG: OK, so this family, who I understand government officials are not naming for privacy reasons, they're coming home. Can you just tell us what people in Sackets Harbor are saying about this return?
MANN: Yeah, a lot of people I've spoken to today are overjoyed. These three kids are enrolled in the Sackets Harbor schools; really well liked, people say. I spoke to Berlin Urbina, who's 19 years old, and she went to school with these kids. She was part of a big protest march over the weekend demanding their return, and Urbina told me she was shocked that it seems to have worked.
BERLIN URBINA: It is amazing. You know, a lot of places probably would have just been like, oh, that sucks they're gone. They wouldn't have done anything about it. But I think because this is such a small community and it impacted us so greatly, everybody came together and was able to make that happen.
MANN: And Ailsa, I understand from local officials here that these kids will be back in school this week.
CHANG: Wow. But Brian, I mean, this seems kind of rare - right? - like, that the Trump administration would release immigrants without legal status in this particular way. Like, how did this situation happen?
MANN: Yeah, there are some unique details here. Sackets Harbor happens to be near the town where the Trump administration's border czar, Tom Homan, grew up. And protesters over the weekend actually marched past Homan's vacation home here.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTORS: Tom Homan took our kids.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTOR: Tom Homan took our kids.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTORS: Tom Homan took our kids.
MANN: Now, Homan was not in upstate New York when that protest happened, but then a Republican state lawmaker intervened, as did local farmers. Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul also got involved. And I spoke to Hochul about this a short time ago today.
KATHY HOCHUL: I spoke to Tom Homan yesterday, who confirmed that they've been released from the detention center in Texas. I don't know if they're going right to the farm or to a place to hold until the - all the attention dies down. And this is a family that's been traumatized.
MANN: Hochul told me this family didn't know until this week of whether they would be flown to another country as many migrants without legal papers have experienced in recent weeks. She described their experience as a living hell. In a statement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said this family was actually caught up in a raid that was focused on possible criminal activity by another foreign national. In an interview with Fox News, Tom Homan said this mother and her children were being interviewed as possible victims or witnesses before their release from that migrant detention facility.
CHANG: But I'm wondering, I mean, because I understand that Sackets Harbor, it's in a conservative part of New York, a region that voted for Trump. Have you been able to talk to people who supported detaining this family?
MANN: Well, Trump supporters here tell me they're really conflicted. Over the weekend, reporters with our member station North Country Public Radio spoke with a guy named Don Pitcher who lives here. He actually opposed bringing this family back. He took part in a counterprotest supporting these deportations over the weekend. He said he's had difficult conversations about all this with his own daughter who attends school with these kids who were detained.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DON PITCHER: She knows where I stand on immigration. She's looking at me. Why them, Dad? I go, listen. I try to explain it to her. It's tough. It's real tough. They're still hurting. The whole school's hurt.
MANN: So there's a real debate even inside families here over how this played out, Ailsa.
CHANG: That is NPR's Brian Mann in Sackets Harbor, New York. Thank you, Brian.
MANN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
