People protest ICE at 26 Federal Plaza.
Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday issued a strong statement condemning the detention of a 7-year-old child and her mother by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials last week, calling the move “cruel and unjust.”
“I have been clear. Whether under President Biden or Donald Trump, I will work with the federal government to secure our borders and deport violent criminals who pose a real threat. But ripping a mother from her children and detaining her 7-year-old daughter is cruel and unjust,” the governor said.
Hochul’s remarks come after ICE agents arrested a student from P.S. 89 in Queens along with her mother and 19-year-old brother while they attended a required court hearing at 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan. It is currently the first known instance of a child this young being taken into custody for reasons pertaining to illegal immigration.
Details about the detention remain scarce, but according to reports, the child and her mother were transferred together to a holding facility in Texas. The woman’s adult son is being held in New Jersey. Reports also say the family comes from Ecuador and came to the United States, escaping domestic violence.
“Instead of preparing her daughter for school, this mother and her daughter have been separated from their family and sent to a facility in Texas,” Hochul said. “My administration has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security, demanding their immediate return to New York.”
The governor called DHS and said she is demanding the family be “immediately” returned to New York. She further urged the DHS to permit elected representatives the opportunity to inspect holding areas where immigrants are being detained; members of Congress have repeatedly been denied entry to locations at Federal Plaza and the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Hochul’s team told amNewYork that conversations with ICE “are ongoing.”
amNewYork contacted DHS for comment on how the conversation went and the conditions of the detentions and is awaiting a response.
Meanwhile, other elected officials have echoed the governor’s sentiments, calling for greater transparency from ICE and a reevaluation of their detention practices, particularly concerning families and minors.
“We are in contact with the local school, Department of Education officials, and federal offices to learn more and fight to make sure the family can be reunited. Family separation is horrific, and ICE must stop these cruel tactics,” Queens City7 Council Member Shekar Krishnan said on X on Aug. 16.
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