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 NPR'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 NPR 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, NPR News, Sackets Harbor, New York. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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