ICE raid in US nutrition manufacturing facility hinders operations with several workers missing

The Nutrition Bar Confectioners, a US manufacturer, has been raided by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The forces targeting Latino employees have detained dozens — including nursing mothers separated from their infants — impacting business operations and expansion plans. New York State Governor Kathy Hochul visited the facility in Cato, where the event took place.

“First of all, for the business, they’re struggling to keep their business afloat. I walked the factory lines that were idle. They make products that are sold in Costco, Walmart, and stores all across the world. They showed me the assembly lines that were silent, where workers had just been.”

“There were three moms with babies under the age of one. One was eight months old, and the mother was nursing the baby. They are still separated. I’m a mom, and that’s hard on the mom — It is traumatic for the mom. It’s also very unhealthy for the baby to be weaned so abruptly, so shockingly.”

She adds that several workers were traumatized and that many have not or are afraid to return after the raid. Hochul says the event has harmed growth for the Nutrition Bar Confectioners, which sought to expand in the coming weeks but cannot anymore due to a lack of workers. 

Paralyzed business and traumatized employees

ICE detained 70 people. Hochul believes 57 are still missing, unaccounted for, or in places unknown to the company.

Hochul notes several workers have been traumatized, and many did not or are afraid to return after the raid.“I cannot believe that our little business here was subjected to a raid,” comments Corinne Schmidt, the owner of Nutrition Bar Confectioners. “People wearing masks, bursting in the doors with guns showing, and what they literally did was separate people by the color of their skin.”

“They literally had white people over here and brown people over there is how they said it, and that separation was cruel to me. It was un-American.”

Hochul says people were rounded up — all Latino. A male agent yanked a woman off the toilet to make her line up with the rest. Ultimately, ICE had administrative warrants, not criminal warrants.

“They misrepresented the justification for even coming on the grounds to the owners, who were told to stay over here because there’s homicide suspects on the grounds, which is truly false.”

“They never found anyone who was a violent criminal. They basically paralyzed a business. They don’t have enough employees now, but think about the people who’ve been separated from their families,” she comments.

Hochul calls for the proper use of the law to detain criminals, not mothers with a nursing baby or people doing their jobs, or to tear families apart. She also questions why the Department of Homeland Security cut US$87 million for counterterrorism work in New York to bolster ICE.