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Family Detained in Immigration Raid in Tom Homan’s Hometown Is Released

Residents of Sackets Harbor, New York, protested the detention of a mother and her three school-aged children.

April 7 2025, 3:20 p.m.

Border Czar Tom Homan speaks to reporters after giving a television interview in front of the West Wing at the White House in Washington, D.C. on March 25, 2025.

Tom Homan in front of the West Wing at the White House in Washington, D.C., on March 25, 2025. Photo: Samuel Corum/Sipa USA via AP

A mother and her three children swept up in an immigration raid in the hometown of border czar Tom Homan have been released following an outpouring of support from locals outraged at their detention.

The release of the family was confirmed Monday by immigration activists working on the family’s behalf and by Jennifer Gaffney, the superintendent of the Sackets Harbor Central School District, where the three children are enrolled.

“My colleagues and I are relieved and grateful to share that, after eleven days of uncertainty, our students and their mother are returning home,” Gaffney said in a statement.

“In the midst of this difficult time, the strength, compassion, and resilience of our community have shone through. We are very thankful to everyone who has reached out with kindness and offered support.”

The family was taken into custody in a March 27 raid at a large dairy farm in Sackets Harbor, New York. Customs and Border Protection agents say the target of their operation was a South African national charged with trafficking in child sexual abuse material, who they apprehended. But authorities also detained the family as well as three other immigrants without documentation. By March 30, the family had been whisked away to the Karnes County Immigration Processing Center, a privately run detention facility in Texas.

The response in Sackets Harbor and the surrounding Jefferson County, located on the shores of Lake Ontario on the western edge of New York’s North Country Region, was one of disbelief and anger — not least because Homan hails from the area and owns a home in Sackets Harbor.

In initial statements about the detention of the family, a CBP spokesperson indicated the family was in the process of deportation. But amid the backlash, Homan told a local news channel last week that the family was merely being questioned for their own safety, due to the nature of the allegations against the man targeted in the raid.

On Saturday, as many as 1,000 people attended a rally in Sackets Harbor, demanding the return of the family and marching past Homan’s house, according to local news reports. It was that pressure that ensured the family’s return, according to Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition.

“The Sackets Harbor community’s steadfast concern, care and love for their neighbors is what brought this family home,” Awawdeh said in a statement Monday. “However, this incident will cause lasting trauma for the family, school and community affected. Donald Trump, Tom Homan and ICE must stop this campaign of cruelty, and the harm they are causing our local communities.”

A CBP spokesperson referred questions to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A spokesperson for ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.