Rural Americans Stand Up to Tom Homan, Stand With Immigrant Mom and Kids

“I’ve driven them to their house after tutoring sessions,” said the Sackets Harbor Central School principal. "In this kind of town, this is a car pool town. I know them.”

Over the weekend, more than 1,000 demonstrators, some carrying U.S. flags and signs reading “TOM HOMAN TOOK OUR KIDS,” took to the streets in the border czar’s small hometown of Sackets Harbor, New York – population 1,400 – to protest his vile and shocking arrest of a local mother and her three children. The mom, a local dairy worker and contributor to her local community, was reportedly swept up as part of an investigation that didn’t even involve her. Other dairy farm workers were also swept up in the indiscriminate raid. Officials then cruelly detained her three children, the youngest of whom is in elementary school. 

On Monday, after days in detention, the Sackets Harbor Superintendent announced that the family would be returning home:

Numerous local, national, and independent media outlets highlighted the swell of outrage over their detention, with local teachers, school officials, and community members taking to the streets to peacefully protest outside Homan’s Sackets Harbor home. Among demonstrators was Jonna St. Croix, a Sackets Harbor Central School educator and teacher to two of the detained children. Croix wrote in a Facebook post shared by Marisa Kabas’ The Handbasket newsletter that the community was angry and in shock.

“They lived in a house on the same road as a home ICE had a warrant for,” Croix wrote. “The fact that ICE went door to door is unfathomable. The fact that our students were handcuffed and put into the same van as the alleged criminal from down the street is unconscionable. When I think of my third grader's experience, my stomach twists and it is hard to breathe. We are in shock-and it is that shared shock that has unified our community in the call for our students' release.” Local media outlet 7NEWS devoted a considerable amount of live coverage to the protest:

Croix further disputed Homan’s ridiculous claim that the family was not detained because they’re allegedly witnesses to a crime, and that they’re in no way in “a jail” because it’s “an open air campus.” While Homan was intentionally trying to soften his words amid blowback, it’s worth remembering that back in 2018, a Trump official tried to compare migrant family jails to “summer camp.” But when then-Senator Kamala Harris asked him if he’d send his kids to one, he refused to answer. Not only are these jails, they’re fattening the pockets of private prison CEOs. 

“We are in direct communication with our students,” Croix continued. “Let me be clear: they are not ‘being medically evaluated.’ They are not being ‘questioned as potential victims.’ Calling a detention center by another name does not change what it is. We deserve better than spin and misinformation. My teachers and my students are already hurting.” Sackets Harbor Central School principal Jamie Cook shared her personal connection to the abducted children. 

“I’ve driven them to their house after tutoring sessions,” Cook told NBC News. “I’ve picked them up for tutoring sessions. In this kind of town, this is a car pool town. I know them.” 

While 90-year-old Jane Jenkins couldn’t participate in the march, she arranged to watch from the front of a friend’s home, Syracuse.com reported. “It was important for Jenkins to participate in the march to Homan’s home, even though her legs would not allow her to walk that half-mile distance, she said. Jenkins grew up in West Carthage when Homan — now a divisive figure in the nation’s immigration battle — was just a boy, she recalled.” 

Homan apparently skipped town ahead of the protest, employees of a favorite deli spot said he told them. Homan was reportedly flanked by bodyguards, apparently to protect himself from the outrage of elderly community members like Jenkins. 

“I needed to be here,” Jenkins told Syracuse.com. “I wanted to be here. We needed to be here.” Statements of support also came from New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, and state attorney general, Letitia James, who similarly demanded the family’s freedom. “That is not the immigration enforcement promised to the American people. It’s just plain cruel,” Gov. Hochul said. “I want this family returned to New York state and believe ICE needs to immediately answer for these actions.”

It’s unclear at the moment how much of the pushback from reporting and local community members like Jenkins factored into the family’s release, but what is known is that they’re returning to a community that turned out in full force for them. 

“My colleagues and I are relieved and grateful to share that, after eleven days of uncertainty, our students and their mother are returning home,” said the Sackets Harbor Superintendent. “We remain committed to providing the care, understanding, and sensitivity necessary for all students and staff as we begin the healing process from this traumatic experience. 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.”

Kabas noted that while ICE forcibly moved the family from New York to a migrant family jail in Texas, the agency doesn’t appear to be providing transportation home. “Their amazing community has arranged for travel,” she reported. “The people of Sackets Harbor—and especially the school administrators and teachers—should be an example for us all that when Trump's goons come knocking, telling them HELL NO can work.”