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It’s Happening Here: ICE Raid Terror in Utica, NY [1]
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Date: 2025-05-25
Laura and her husband were having breakfast when a dark, unmarked van pulled up outside their house. Men in black stepped out. One pounded on the door, one went into their backyard, and another peered through their window.
“They knocked like we were criminals,” said Laura (who asked that her name be disguised for fear of retaliation by the United States government), who had just settled by the front window when she saw the van arrive. “They didn’t identify themselves right away. They didn’t have a name. I only saw ‘ICE’ on one of their jackets.”
Her husband, Sanjay (his name is also disguised for fear of retaliation by the United States government), has lived in the United States since 1987. He came to this country on a student visa, went to college, and became an electrical engineer. He encountered immigration difficulties first during the Gulf War in the 1990s and again after 9/11, when he spent eight and a half months in a detention center simply because of his country of origin.
When the American government released him, his passport was not returned to him. Because of his country of origin, he does not have a birth certificate. He is not a citizen of the United States, nor is he a citizen of the country he left almost 40 years ago.
He came as a student and stayed, working and building a life. Now, he is stateless—a man with no country, no passport, nowhere to go, and no guarantee of safety if deported. Since then, he's tried to regularize his status. In 2006, he married Laura, a U.S. citizen. However, because of the prior deportation order, the marriage didn’t automatically change his legal status.
“The system isn’t what people think it is,” Laura said. “People assume once you’re married to a citizen, you’re safe. But that law changed in 1994.”
His asylum case reached the Second Circuit Court but was denied. With limited legal options, they turned to a marriage-based petition, still unresolved nearly two decades later.
ICE agents came to their home with no judicial warrant and no named target. “They never even said his name,” Laura said. “I asked if they had a warrant signed by a judge. They didn’t. So I said, ‘I’m a U.S. citizen. I know my rights. You can’t come in.’ And they left.”
The incident has left the couple shaken. Laura, who is disabled and autistic, says the ordeal has intensified her sense of vulnerability.
“I was terrified,” she said. “I thought they might break the door down. I didn’t know what they would do.”
Now, they’re considering emigration to Canada. Laura has Canadian ancestry and is exploring a little-known citizenship program that may allow her to apply through her late grandfather. If approved, it could open a pathway to legal status and safety from harm for her husband.
“What’s insane is that we may have to seek asylum from the U.S.,” she said.
They are not alone. Other families in their area have reported surprise visits from ICE. One woman said ICE agents knocked on her door, looking for someone who hadn’t lived there in years. Many people Laura and Sanjay know fear the same fate, especially those from marginalized or immigrant communities.
“We’ve tried reaching out to lawmakers before,” Laura added. “But it feels hopeless. We’re just average citizens—paying taxes, contributing to society—and they treat us like we’re fugitives.”
Despite years of paying local, state, and federal taxes, and working in a high-demand field, the couple fears the government could deport him to a country he’s never called home—or worse, drop him in a country where he has no ties, language ability, or identity.
“If ICE picks me up,” he said, “they could send me anywhere. El Salvador, Libya—who knows? I don’t speak the language. I don’t even exist on paper anymore.”
“There’s no due process,” Laura said. “There’s no time to call a lawyer. It all happens in the dark, like a raid. And no one is safe—not even people who’ve lived here nearly 40 years.”
“I go to one of these countries,” Sanjay added, “Who knows what's going to happen? [With no passport or birth certificate], there's no record of me going there. Without any traceability, if I go there, are they going to let me out? Am I going to die?”
They say what’s happening in their community isn’t just about immigration—it’s about human rights. During our interview, we discussed the parallels between their situation and Anne Frank's. Once again, a government is using terror to scapegoat and persecute a marginalized group.
In Worcester, Massachusetts, residents tried to protect a woman who was being terrorized by ICE agents trying to take her away from her baby. They were unsuccessful in their attempts. The woman was arrested along with her 16-year-old daughter.
“Human greatness does not lie in wealth or power,” Anne Frank wrote, “but in character and goodness. People are just people, and all people have faults and shortcomings, but all of us are born with a basic goodness.”
After the incident, Laura posted a plea on Facebook asking her friends and neighbors to gather at their house as they processed the terror. Cars soon filled her driveway. A glimmer of that basic goodness fighting against an evil the world has seen before, but that too many are not recognizing and too many more are still welcoming. As the cars left, Laura and Sanjay were alone. Not knowing what will happen next—waiting to find out.
Ron Klopfanstein is an award-winning multimedia investigative journalist for 95.5 FM “The Heat” broadcast and streaming. He hosts Hot Seat: Media Monday every Monday at 5 pm, broadcast on 95.5 FM and streaming at 955TheHeat.com. Podcasts at:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4nbrIF49K56OxbPljuw1Lv?si=7e000e7279f54c2a Like him at Facebook.com/ReadRonKlopfanstein, Follow him at Bsky.app/profile/ronklopfanstein.bsky.social, Threads.net/@RonKlopfanstein, Instagram.com/RonKlopfanstein, Tiktok.com/@ronklopfanstein, and subscribe to his channel at YouTube.com/@RonKlopfanstein. Read all his work at Muckrack.com/ron-klopfanstein.
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