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An immigration raid<\/span> in western New York on Friday targeted a group of immigrants involved in a landmark statewide effort by farm workers to unionize.<\/p>\n On Friday morning at around 9:30 a.m., federal agents in unmarked cars and bearing no agency insignia pulled over a bus in Albion, New York, about 35 miles west of Rochester, and took 14 people of Lynn-Ette & Sons Farms into custody. All of the detainees, who hailed from Mexico and Guatemala, were year-round employees of Lynn-Ette & Sons Farms, a family-owned business in nearby Kent, New York, which has been locked in a multiyear battle to prevent workers from unionizing.<\/p>\n The company is one of five agricultural businesses that, together with a state growers\u2019 association, have tried for years to overturn or chip away at New York\u2019s 2019 farm labor law. The law enshrined protections for the right of farmworkers \u2014 whether seasonal or year-round \u2014 to seek union representation.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThis was strange because they actually had a list of most of the workers on the bus.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n Several of the workers taken into custody on Friday have been active in efforts to unionize year-round employees, including at least one who has spoken publicly in favor of joining the United Farm Workers of America, according to Elizabeth Strater, director of strategic campaigns for UFW, the storied labor union.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe are concerned at the appearance of targeting publicly pro-union worker leaders,\u201d said Strater.\u00a0<\/p>\n Most of the workers detained on Friday hail from Mexico or Guatemala.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The raid did not appear to be a broad sweep but rather a targeted enforcement aimed at specific people, according to sources who have been in contact with the families and spoke to The Intercept on condition of anonymity to candidly discuss a sensitive legal situation.<\/p>\n \u201cAt first we thought they were enforcing a deportation order, that they had one person that they\u2019re looking for and then everyone else got dragged in \u2014 that\u2019s kind of standard,\u201d said one of the people with knowledge of the raid. \u201cBut this was strange because they actually had a list of most of the workers on the bus.\u201d<\/p>\n In video of the raid posted to social media, the agents could be seen dressed in civilian clothes and wearing tactical vests with patches that said \u201cPolice,\u201d as is common in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.<\/p>\n The agents did not identify themselves, said a source close to the families of the detained workers, but a spokesperson for ICE later confirmed that its agents had made the arrests.<\/p>\n According to the spokesperson, all 14 were in the country with authorization, and three of the individuals had pending removal orders.<\/p>\n Following an inquiry from The Intercept, Lynn-Ette \u2014 which grows green beans, cabbage, squash, and other vegetables and foodstuffs \u2014 issued a statement on Monday morning expressing concern for their employees.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are deeply troubled by the manner in which this enforcement action was carried out and the impact it has had on our team and their families. Lynn-Ette & Sons had no prior knowledge of the raid and had no contact with ICE beforehand,\u201d the company wrote in the statement, which appeared as a sponsored post on a local news site.<\/a> \u201cWe call on elected officials and community leaders to ensure that all enforcement actions are conducted with transparency, due process, and human dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\u201cA Different Level of Fear\u201d<\/strong>