LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Three children who don't have legal status in the U.S. are expected back in school this week in Sackets Harbor, New York. The kids and their mom were detained during a raid last month on a dairy farm. As º£½ÇÉçÇø's Brian Mann reports, the family was released following protests and a bipartisan lobbying effort.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: This story begins in late March when public school teachers, including Jonna St. Croix, learned three of their students - two teenagers and a third grader - had been detained, along with their mother, during a late-night raid.
JONNA ST CROIX: I understood that there may be some students in my classroom that were vulnerable, but I certainly did not expect this to happen.
MANN: Government officials aren't releasing the names of the family for privacy reasons. St. Croix says the reaction in the Sackets Harbor public school after they were sent to a migrant detention facility in Texas was immediate.
ST CROIX: During our planning periods and lunch periods, we just worked to figure out what we could do to get them back.
MANN: That effort quickly spread to much of the community of Sackets Harbor, a conservative small town near the U.S.-Canada border that voted for President Donald Trump. For people like 19-year-old Berlin Urbina (ph), the big national debate over immigration was suddenly real and personal.
BERLIN URBINA: I mean, it was shocking at first because I knew those kids. I had classes with them. I had played in gym class with the little boy, so it was devastating for everyone.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS #1: (Chanting) Bring our kids back.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #1: (Chanting) Bring our kids back.
MANN: Last weekend, Urbina marched with nearly a thousand other people here, demanding the mom and her kids be sent home.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS #1: (Chanting) This is what democracy looks like.
MANN: Not everyone here agreed. Don Pitcher (ph) joined a small counter-protest and said migrants without legal status should be deported.
DON PITCHER: The bottom line is you either got to be here on a work visa, have a green card or come here legally. And when you don't, these are the consequences.
MANN: One twist in this case is that Trump administration border czar, Tom Homan, owns a vacation home in Sackets Harbor. He wasn't here over the weekend, but protesters marched past his house.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS #2: (Chanting) Tom Homan took our kids.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #2: (Chanting) Tom Homan took our kids.
MANN: In a statement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said the raid that triggered this case actually began as part of a criminal investigation, targeting a foreign national who allegedly possessed child pornography. Speaking with local television station 7 News, Homan suggested the family was being held as part of that investigation.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TOM HOMAN: Can they provide information and evidence in this crime? Were they victimized?
MANN: Local officials dispute that account and said they feared the family would be deported out of the U.S. Efforts to bring them home grew to include local dairy farmers, a Republican state assemblyman and Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul, who told º£½ÇÉçÇø this raid should never have happened.
KATHY HOCHUL: The door is broken down. There are masked individuals with guns that go into a child's bedroom.
MANN: Hochul confirmed yesterday federal immigration police have released the mother and three children. Berlin Urbina says she's happy the pressure campaign seems to have worked.
URBINA: It's amazing I think that everybody came together.
MANN: Jonna St. Croix, who teaches social studies, says the debate over immigration and Trump's deportation policy is complex, but for her, this moment is simple.
ST CROIX: I'm so grateful and just an empty desk really stands out, and I can't wait for them to be back in our classrooms. I'm so grateful for everyone who helped.
MANN: Local officials say this family was already attending court hearings aimed at gaining legal status. That process will now resume.
Brian Mann, º£½ÇÉçÇø News, Sackets Harbor, New York. Transcript provided by º£½ÇÉçÇø, Copyright º£½ÇÉçÇø.
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