Federal agents, deputies raid Central New York nutrition bar manufacturing plant

Cato, N.Y. - Federal agents and sheriff’s deputies raided a food manufacturing plant in Cato on Thursday morning.

The immigration raid started at about 9 a.m. at the Nutrition Bar Confectioners factory at 12351 Route 34, according to an employee. The family-owned business, founded in 1978, makes specialty nutrition bars.

The raid included officers from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Cayuga County and Oswego County sheriff’s offices. The Cayuga sheriff’s office had its mobile command center at the factory.

Cayuga County Sheriff Brian Schenck said the raid was a U.S. Department of Homeland Security criminal investigation. He declined to provide any other details.

At its peak, about 50 agents and deputies were at the factory, witnesses said. Some officers wore masks and many wore bullet-proof vests.

Many employees were on break around 9 a.m. when a woman started shouting that ICE had arrived and had the building surrounded, said Erick Estevez, who works at the factory.

Family, friends and immigration advocates at the factory said they started receiving messages and calls from people inside the building about the raid between 9 and 9:30 a.m.

By early afternoon, dozens of people working in the building had been taken away in unmarked vehicles, witnesses said.

Ana Méndez, who said she was an immigration advocate, said people in the factory told her that officers used crowbars to break down doors to get into the building.

Estevez said that after officers broke in, everyone was rounded up, and the authorities performed a sweep across the building.

One employee said agents broke into the building from all angles. She asked not to be identified because she feared it might impact her job.

She estimated about 100 people were working at the time of the raid. During the raid, she said she saw a few women who were being detained crying and throwing up.

Estevez said employees were broken into groups of U.S. citizens and non-citizens. Estevez, who is a U.S. citizen, said he and other citizens were allowed to leave.

Kayla Kelechian, who is with the New York Immigration Coalition, said that after she arrived she saw unmarked vehicles packed with people leaving the scene.

In early afternoon, the Cayuga County Sheriff’s Mobile Incident Unit was still on the scene along with a few other police cars and a few border patrol vehicles.

By 3 p.m., most of the agents and deputies had left.

Rachel Wegman, another witness on the scene, said she felt horribly for the families and the community.

“This business could be shut down, or it will at least affect them tremendously,” she said. “These families are all traumatized. It’s just crazy... crazy.”

Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard has reached out to ICE and Homeland Security for more information.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article reported a federal agent said the people detained were taken to the Oswego County jail. An Oswego County Sheriff’s Office official later said they were not taken to the jail.

Staff writer Finn Lincoln covers breaking news, crime and public safety. He can be reached at flincoln@syracuse.com.