Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul visited the Nutrition Bar Confectioners facility in Cato, New York, following an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid that took place earlier this month. The visit comes after dozens of employees were detained during the incident.
During her remarks in Syracuse, Governor Hochul described meeting with the owners of the family-run business—Mark, his sons Lenny, Mark Jr., Jeff, and Corrine Schmidt. She noted that the company has operated for nearly 50 years and currently faces significant challenges as a result of the raid.
“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 and Walmart and stores all across the world. Nutrition bars, and they showed me the assembly lines that were silent where workers had just been just 12 days ago. They showed me the workers that were still there, but many of them have been traumatized and many other workers have just not returned,” Hochul said.
The governor detailed how more than 70 people were taken during the ICE operation. “Some involuntarily they’ve been detained by ICE. There was a rate of over 70 people, I believe 57, are still missing or unaccounted for or in places unknown to the owners. And there’s others just too frightened to come back,” she stated.
She recounted what was told to her by Corrine Schmidt: “I cannot believe that our little business here was subjected to a raid. People wearing masks bursting in the doors with guns showing, and what they literally did was separated people by the color of their skin. They literally had white people over here and brown people over here is how they said it, and that separation was cruel to me. It was un-American. It was abhorrent to see that kind of activity and know about it in our own country, much less our own state.”
Hochul continued: “And basically they rounded up 69 people, all of them Latino at the time. Again, sorted by the color of the skin. I was in that room today. I saw where this trauma unfolded and it just makes you pause.” She also raised concerns about agents entering private areas without criminal warrants: “One male agent burst into a woman’s restroom, literally yanked her off the toilet and made her line up with everyone else.”
According to Hochul’s account from her discussions with company leadership, no violent criminals were found during this operation; instead families have been separated as a result: “There were three moms with babies under the age of one…they are still separated.” She reported contacting Tom Homan for assistance but has yet to receive a response.
Governor Hochul criticized federal priorities regarding law enforcement funding: “The Department of Homeland Security cut $87 million for counter terrorism work in New York…So that’s bomb squads, tactical teams, and canine teams, hazardous material response units that will not have the funding they had in the past.” She noted this included $400,000 cut from local police departments within Central New York.
She called on officials to reconsider these strategies: “Let’s reshift, let’s refocus. Let’s get back to what keeps people safe, not separating families.”
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