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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Immigration raid at New York business left workers terrified and slowed
production, co-owner says
By Hanna Park, CNN
Updated:
4:45 AM EDT, Sat September 6, 2025
Source: CNN
When Lenny Schmidt arrived at his family-run nutrition bar
manufacturing business in upstate New York Thursday morning, federal
immigration agents were already there.
“The agents were swarming the plant,” he said. “There were
probably over 100 of these agents, on four-wheelers, on foot, they had
dogs.”
“They had surrounded the facility and forced their way through into
the plant … using, I think, crowbars,” Schmidt, the company’s
co-owner and vice president, told CNN’s Laura Coates on Friday.
By the end of the hourslong raid at Nutrition Bar Confectioners in
Cato, a rural community about 30 miles northwest of Syracuse, dozens of
employees had been detained.
The raid in Cato coincided with a in Ellabell, Georgia, where federal
agents detained 475 workers, mostly Korean nationals suspected of
living or working in the US illegally. It marked the largest sweep yet
in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown at worksites,
which has increasingly targeted industries like manufacturing and
agriculture that often depend on immigrant labor.
At the New York facility, agents sealed the exits, halting production
and corralling workers for questioning.
“They cornered all of our workers, seemingly targeting just the
Hispanic employees, separated everybody … later on, they ended up
escorting them into vans,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt said his company, which has been operating since 1978, complies
with all federal labor laws.
“We vet each person as best as we can in accordance with those laws
and get the correct documentation to support this,” he said, adding
that all his employees possessed the necessary documentation to legally
work in the US.
ICE told the raid was a “court-authorized enforcement operation,”
but did not provide further details. Employees told WSTM that around 60
workers were detained. CNN has reached out to the agency for details.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul sharply condemned the raid, calling it a
cruel disruption to immigrant families.
“What they did was shatter hard-working families who are simply
trying to build a life here, just like millions of immigrants before
them,” the governor said.
‘Everyone got scared’
The operation began around 9 a.m., according to a Guatemalan worker who
has been working on the production line for two years. Speaking on
condition of anonymity, the worker described the mounting panic as
agents surrounded the building and gathered up to 70 workers – many
from Guatemala and Nicaragua – into the lunchroom, where the entire
workforce was questioned.
“They surrounded the building. Everyone got scared.”
The worker, a legal US resident, said ICE agents neither showed
warrants nor explained the reason for the raid.
“They went straight to the workers,” the employee said. “They
asked what country we were from, if we had permission to be in the US.
They demanded papers.”
After showing his identification card, the worker was released within
half an hour, but others, including coworkers with valid work permits,
were taken into custody, he said.
CNN contacted the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and
Customs Enforcement to find out if the detainees had valid work permits
and awaits a response.
Some employees who were released from detention returned to the plant
almost immediately, Schmidt said.
“It’s heartbreaking … some of them came back to work. I remember
seeing somebody punching the clock and I walked up to him and I
couldn’t believe my eyes. So I shook his hand and gave him a hug,”
he said.
Production at the plant came to a standstill during the raid, but
Schmidt said operations have resumed – though at reduced capacity.
“It’s going to slow us down probably half speed or just less until
we get hopefully some of these workers back,” Schmidt said, adding
they will also start the hiring process for new workers this weekend.
“What makes us successful is having these wonderful workers,” he
said. “We hope and pray for our workers to be safe and to return home
to their families and, hopefully, back to work.”
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