(Bloomberg) — More than 60 federal immigration agents, many masked and clad in military gear, stormed a family-owned granola-bar factory in upstate Cato, New York, on the first day of school one year ago this week.
Agents forced their way into women’s bathrooms and peered over stalls inside Nutrition Bar Confectioners. They herded pregnant women and young mothers into a sweaty breakroom packed with about 160 workers, including some US citizens.
US Customs and Border Patrol and other federal agencies had spent months looking into whether Nutrition Bar Confectioners was a haven for undocumented workers, and obtained two search warrants. One gave them permission to seize records and electronics that could prove the company hired workers illegally; the other, to conduct “consensual” questioning of employees. Workers couldn’t be pressured to speak, and could only be arrested if there was probable cause they were undocumented, according to the warrant and a judge’s ruling.
But when agents burst through the doors, they swiftly turned away from their stated purpose and began rounding up workers, a federal judge found. English speakers were separated from Spanish speakers, and nobody was allowed to leave the building until agents questioned them. Witnesses described a chaotic and poorly organized affair, with one customs agent calling the operation a “shitshow,” according to body camera video and a Dec. 18 court ruling.
“The agents’ conduct here was, at best, grossly negligent ….agents engaged in conduct markedly different from that which the Government told the magistrate judge would occur,” Brenda K. Sannes, chief U.S. District judge for the Northern District of New York, wrote while suppressing all evidence in a criminal case against one of the detained workers. “Even assuming that warrant complied with the Fourth Amendment — an issue which is far from clear cut — the agents plainly exceeded its contemplated scope.”
A year after one of the largest immigration raids in recent New York history, many of the assertions made at the time by immigration officials, DOJ attorneys and ICE agents have been refuted by court filings, affidavits, bodycam footage and judicial rulings.
In a charging affidavit, one supervisor documented a confession that, “evidently never occurred,” Sannes wrote. Other federal agents said they learned at the scene that a person arrested for illegal reentry was from Guatemala and refused to turn over immigration papers, according to a motion to suppress and court exhibits. Instead, agents never asked for the immigration documents, and had no knowledge of her legal status until hours after the arrest, according to the motion and Sannes’ ruling.
When applying for the search warrant, agents wrote that the primary purpose of the warrant was to seek employment records. Body camera footage and affidavits show that agents didn’t begin searching until after it had detained, questioned and arrested dozens of workers, according to a defense motion and court exhibits.
In all, 57 undocumented workers, including some who had valid work permits or were awaiting asylum hearings, were detained that day and shipped to facilities in Texas and Louisiana. A mother of three young children, including a US citizen, was swept up and “wrongfully deported” while awaiting an asylum hearing, only to be returned when the mistake came to light, a Texas federal judge wrote in a January order.
Agents on the scene told factory managers they were searching for two violent offenders, possibly involved in a homicide. Five days after the raid, acting US Attorney John Sarcone III acknowledged in a news conference that none of those detained had criminal histories, other than five charged with illegally reentering the country.
While Nutrition Bar’s hiring practices were the stated reason for the raid, no criminal or civil charges have been filed against the company, according to federal court records.
A spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York, in a written response to questions, said it “cannot comment on this as it is subject to ongoing investigation. Relating to the owner, I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of any investigation or pending prosecution.”
The Department of Homeland Security, in an emailed statement, said “there are no formal rulings against the search warrant” and that it complies with all lawful court orders.
The records show that the judge’s rebuke, the mistaken deportation of a young mother and other missteps outlined in court documents in New York and Louisiana made no difference in the end. Nearly all of the 57 seized workers were deported, including one after she was granted bond by a judge.
“It just feels like ICE is just experimenting on raids like this, and not just in Cato,” said Jessica Maxwell, executive director of the Workers Center of Central New York. “Let’s see what happens if we go into a workplace, even if the warrant really can’t hold up, and keep doing it until we see if there are any consequences.”
