The 70 workers who were rounded up and detained during an immigration raid at a protein bar plant in northern Cayuga County have been sent out of state, according to family members and advocates for the workers.
In less than 48 hours, the workers went from the jobs and lives where they’d spent decades to a detention center at the Texas border, awaiting potential deportation.
Elizabeth Ramirez-Abrams said her husband, 46-year-old Hediberto Ramirez-Perez, called her around 11 a.m. Saturday to tell her he was in Texas. She said he and the others were flown there from Buffalo. No one is sure what detention center they are in, and an online system simply says they are in the custody of Customs and Border Patrol.
Ramirez-Abrams and her sisters had been searching for Ramirez-Perez, known to everyone as “Big Eddie,” since she last saw him being taken away Thursday. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided the Nutrition Bar Confectioners plant they both work at in Cato, with assistance from Oswego and Cayuga County sheriff’s deputies.
Ramirez-Abrams said her husband told her he only had a few seconds to talk. He told her what seemed like the most important thing: Call the lawyer, tell him where I am.
Ramirez-Perez has a pending appeal in U.S. Immigration Court. Because of that, he should not have been detained, his lawyer, Jose Perez, said Friday. He said he has other clients, too, who had valid paperwork but were detained anyway at the raid.
Erin Fiorini, a volunteer advocate with the Syracuse Immigrant and Refugee Defense Network, said many of the people she knows who were taken have valid paperwork that agents disregarded.
Fiorini asked people to call lawmakers and urge them to help the workers.
“Call Schumer, call Gillibrand, call Barclay, call Chris Ryan,” she said. “Tell them to get parents back home to their kids.”
At least a dozen children left for the first day of school Thursday morning to come to one or both of their parents gone.
More articles on raid of Central New York factory
- Gov. Hochul slams federal immigration raid, calling it ‘deeply appalling’ and ‘un-American”
- ICE raid in Upstate NY shows ‘our democracy is under attack’ (Your letters)
- Inside the Upstate NY immigration raid: Secrecy, deception and a rush to deport dozens of workers (video)
- GOP Upstate NY mayor invokes his mother’s immigration and criticizes Cato raid: ‘We must do better’ (Guest Opinion)
- No violent criminals charged in Upstate NY raid; U.S. Attorney warns other businesses they’re next
Marnie Eisenstadt writes about people and public affairs in Central New York. Reach her at email| 315-470-2246.
