Family swept up by US immigration agents seeking someone else is released from custody

Authorities released a woman and her three children from custody on Monday after immigration agents detained them late last month while investigators were making an arrest at an upstate New York farm as part of an unrelated criminal case.

President Donald Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, told Carthage-based TV station WWNY last week that the family detained on March 27 is in the country illegally. Advocates for the family said they have been in the process of seeking legal status in immigration court.

Authorities haven't said why the family was released after spending more than a week at a federal lockup in Texas, but their detention sparked protests in recent days outside of Homan's upstate New York home, while a social media post by the children's school principal describing the community's ''shared shock'' circulated widely online.

''The Sackets Harbor community's steadfast concern, care and love for their neighbors is what brought this family home,'' said Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition.

New York Assemblyman Scott Gray said the mother and children, who have not publicly been identified, were released following a health review and interviews with authorities.

''ICE has made an independent decision to release the family,'' said Gray, a Republican from Watertown.

The outpouring of support for the family included a demonstration on Saturday that drew hundreds of people to Sackets Harbor, a small town on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario where Homan has a home and where the children — who are in third, 10th and 11th grade — attend school. Principal Jaime Cook, who pleaded for the family's release in a Facebook post, was among the demonstrators.

''The fact that our students were handcuffed and put into the same van as the alleged criminal from down the street is unconscionable,'' Cook wrote in her post. ''When I think of my third grader's experience, my stomach twists and it is hard to breathe.''

The mother and children were detained after federal agents arrived at North Harbor Dairy Farm in search of a 43-year-old South African man wanted on a charge of distributing images of child sexual abuse. That man was arrested, as were seven people suspected of being in the country illegally, including the woman and her three kids.

In interviews, Homan said the family's home was within the area covered by the search warrant and that agents had done ''everything by the book.''

''Sometimes when you serve a warrant in a criminal investigation, there's other people in the vicinity that have to be detained for questioning and safety reasons. But it's part of the job,'' he told WWNY.

He said investigators had to do ''due diligence'' before a decision could be made on whether to release the family.

''There's a process during these investigations where — could these children, could that family be a material witness in this horrendous crime? Can they provide information and evidence in this crime? Were they victimized within this crime?" he said.

The Trump administration has made it a priority to deport anyone in the country illegally, even those officers encounter while targeting someone else. That is a departure from President Joe Biden, whose administration limited deportation priorities to people deemed national security or public safety risks and those stopped at the border.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to questions about the family's legal and immigration status and whether they would be allowed to remain in the country.

Cook said the students ''were doing everything right.''

''They had declared themselves to immigration judges, attended court on their assigned dates, and were following the legal process,'' she said.

Jennifer Gaffney, superintendent of the 400-student Sackets Harbor Central School District, said the district would provide ''the care, understanding and sensitivity necessary for our students and staff to begin the healing process from this traumatic experience.''

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she learned from Homan on Monday that the family was returning to upstate New York.

''New York has been consistent: we are open to working with federal immigration enforcement to crack down on gang members or violent criminals," the Democratic governor said in a statement. "But I will never support cruel actions that rip kids out of school or tear families apart.''

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Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat contributed to this report.