Mom, 3 kids detained by ICE in operation that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul calls “just plain cruel”

A mother and her three children were detained last month in an immigration operation in northern New York state near the U.S.-Canada border, according to an immigrant advocacy group. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the operation was “just plain cruel” and called on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to return the family to the state.

The operation and outcry from officials come as the Trump administration carries out its controversial immigration crackdown throughout the country.

Federal agents carried out the New York operation last Thursday at a dairy farm in the town of Hounsfield, according to CBS affiliate WWNY-TV. The Department of Homeland Security told the news station ICE and other federal law enforcement agencies had started conducting operations in parts of New York to enforce immigration law on March 24. WWNY-TV reported eight people were detained at the farm, according to officials.

An immigrant advocacy group, the New York Immigration Coalition, said the mother and her children were detained in the operation and sent to a detention facility in Texas. The group didn’t identify the mother or her children, but its leader said their case had been working its way through the U.S. immigration system.

“We are supposed to live in a nation of laws, but while this family was correctly navigating the immigration system and attending their immigration court hearings, they were instead taken by ICE agents and sent thousands of miles away from their home and community,” Murad Awawdeh, the coalition’s president and CEO, said in a statement Sunday.

ICE didn’t immediately respond to CBS News’ request for comment on the operation.

While Hochul said that she supports working with the federal government to deport violent criminals who pose a threat, she called for the family to be returned to New York.

“I cannot think of any public safety justification for ICE agents to rip an innocent family, including a child in the third grade, from their Sackets Harbor home,” the governor said in a statement Tuesday. “That is not the immigration enforcement promised to the American people. It’s just plain cruel. I want this family returned to New York State and believe ICE needs to immediately answer for these actions.”

Hochul’s statement followed outcry from local officials who also want the family back.

“These kids are, they’re classmates, they’re good friends, they are wonderful students, and they are part of the fabric of our school community,” Jennifer Gaffney, superintendent of the Sackets Harbor Central School District, told WWNY-TV in an interview broadcast Monday, “and they need to be returned to their classrooms.”