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ICE agents arrested 57 illegal immigrants at a New York candy factory — including some accused of child endangerment, DUI and repeated illegal re-entries — in a raid that New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul blasted as “cruel.”
A Homeland Security spokesperson told Fox News Digital that an ICE workplace enforcement operation at Nutrition Bar Confectioners in Cato, New York, resulted in the arrests of 57 illegal aliens, including some with prior criminal convictions or pending charges, including child endangerment, DUI and multiple illegal re-entries.
The spokesperson said, “These operations target illegal employment networks that undermine American workers, destabilize labor markets, and threaten American communities.”
Hochul, however, has said she is “outraged” by the workplace operations, which she said “fly in the face of New York’s values.”
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Hochul criticized the operation, saying that “parents of at least a dozen children are at risk of returning from school to an empty house.”
“I’ve made it clear: New York will work with the federal government to secure our borders and deport violent criminals, but we will never stand for masked ICE agents separating families and abandoning children,” Hochul said in a statement.
“Today’s raids will not make New York safer. What they did was shatter hard-working families who are simply trying to build a life here, just like millions of immigrants before them,” she said. “These actions fly in the face of New York’s values. As governor, I will always stand against this cruelty.”
Despite the criticism from Hochul and other Democrats, the DHS spokesperson called worksite enforcement “a cornerstone of our efforts to protect public safety, national security, and economic stability while rescuing individuals who may be victims of labor trafficking or exploitation.”
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“The employment of illegal aliens also incentivizes dangerous and illegal practices, including social security fraud,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson pointed to a recent worksite operation at a meatpacking plant in Omaha, Nebraska, which they said is evidence that “many illegal aliens use stolen social security numbers and identities to unlawfully obtain wages, health benefits and employment authorization.”
Fox News Digital previously covered the Omaha operation, which resulted in the arrest of 70 illegal aliens who were working at the plant using stolen Social Security numbers and identities to unlawfully obtain employment authorization, wages and benefits at the expense of over 100 American victims.
ICE officials told Fox News Digital that among those victimized by the mass identity theft scheme was a full-time nursing student who lost their college tuition assistance because it was fraudulently reported that they earned too much money due to an illegal alien using their Social Security number.
While the arrests sparked protests from some in both the local community and nationally, ICE said the illegal aliens’ identity theft proves they were not innocent, hardworking members of society, as some have suggested.
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“Behind every stolen Social Security number uncovered these operations is a real American — mothers, fathers, students, and disabled workers — now facing devastating financial, emotional, and legal fallout,” said the DHS spokesperson.
The spokesperson pointed to another recent worksite operation at a marijuana facility in Ventura County, California, in which over 300 illegal aliens were arrested and 14 children were rescued from “potential forced labor, exploitation, and trafficking.”
The children rescued at the farm were from Mexico and Honduras.
Fox News Digital reached out to Hochul’s office and Nutrition Bar Confectioners for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Fox News Digital’s Peter D’Abrosca and Fox News’ Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
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