“They Actually Had a List”: #ICE Arrests Workers Involved in Landmark #LaborRights Case
“We are concerned at the appearance of targeting publicly #ProUnion worker leaders,” said a union official about a raid in western New York.
Noah Hurowitz
May 5 2025
"An immigration raid in western #NewYork on Friday targeted a group of immigrants involved in a landmark statewide effort by #FarmWorkers to #unionize.
"On Friday morning at around 9:30 a.m., federal agents in unmarked cars and bearing no agency insignia pulled over a bus in Albion, New York, about 35 miles west of Rochester, and took 14 people of Lynn-Ette & Sons Farms into custody. All of the detainees, who hailed from Mexico and Guatemala, were year-round employees of Lynn-Ette & Sons Farms, a family-owned business in nearby Kent, New York, which has been locked in a multiyear battle to prevent workers from unionizing.
"The company is one of five agricultural businesses that, together with a state growers’ association, have tried for years to overturn or chip away at New York’s 2019 #FarmLaborLaw. The law enshrined protections for the right of #farmworkers — whether seasonal or year-round — to seek union representation.
" 'This was strange because they actually had a list of most of the workers on the bus.'
"Several of the workers taken into custody on Friday have been active in efforts to unionize year-round employees, including at least one who has spoken publicly in favor of joining the United Farm Workers of America, according to Elizabeth Strater, director of strategic campaigns for #UFW, the storied labor union.
" 'We are concerned at the appearance of targeting publicly pro-union worker leaders,' said Strater.
"Most of the workers detained on Friday hail from #Mexico or #Guatemala.
"The raid did not appear to be a broad sweep but rather a targeted enforcement aimed at specific people, according to sources who have been in contact with the families and spoke to The Intercept on condition of anonymity to candidly discuss a sensitive legal situation."
Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2025/05/05/ice-raid-farm-labor-union-new-york-ufw/
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/xLMYr
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