A mother and her four children from Syracuse, New York, have complied with an order from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to report for detainment, despite three of the youngsters involved being born in the U.S.
The woman and her kids, aged between 13 and six, have been sent to an ICE facility in Texas, according to their pastor, Paul Reynoso, who spoke to Spectrum News.
Reynoso said that ICE agents had arrested the unnamed woman’s husband at their home in Syracuse on Friday, and the rest of the family was sent a detainment letter a day later.
The family presented legal filings from their attorneys but were nevertheless told they must report as ordered.
“We offered to keep the children with us, but she decided to keep the family together,” Reynoso said, explaining that the kids all attend local schools.
“That’s good. The family should stay together.”
He added that the family was originally from Guatemala and had lived in the U.S. for more than a decade.
ICE reportedly told them they would be housed together in a hotel and provided for during the detention.
The agency has attracted growing hostility from the public this month after ramping up its raids on undocumented migrants across the country, particularly in Democrat-run cities, as part of President Donald Trump’s aggressive mass deportation push.
Local opposition came to a head in Los Angeles when residents took to the streets to protest against their actions, leading to a tense standoff that saw the president send in the National Guard and Marines to help maintain law and order, against the wishes of California Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass.
Sympathy demonstrations were held in other cities in response, including New York, San Francisco, Sacramento, Austin, Houston, San Antonio, and Chicago.
With tensions still running high, a California vice mayor came under fire this week for posting a video on social media in which she appeared to call on L.A.’s notorious street gangs to protect the Latino community.
Other stories of ICE’s activities that caused outrage include the arrest of a breastfeeding mother with a three-month-old infant and Purple Heart recipient Sae Joon Park, 55, choosing to self-deport to South Korea after being told he could no longer stay in the country he fought for.
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