Kaptur to visit Corso's detainees

SANDUSKY — At least one federal representative won't take "no" for an answer from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, whose 9th District includes Sandusky, said Sunday she'll visit a federal detention center where many of the migrant workers arrested by ICE agents on June 6 at two Corso's Flower and Garden Center locations are being held.Kaptur's staff said she will visit the detention facility in Calhoun County, Michigan, near Battle Creek, from about 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. today. "The visit is scheduled to include conversations with those being kept at the facility as well as a briefing from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials," a news release issued by Kaptur's office states. Kaptur plans to talk to reporters after her visit.About 200 ICE agents, Border Patrol agents — some heavily armed — descended on the Corso's Flower and Garden Center on U.S. 250 and a second location, greenhouse operations on Bardshar Road in Castalia, on June 5 and arrested 114 workers. The Department of Homeland Security said many of them were not working legally, but the agencies have not released any arrest records, or even the names of the people who were taken away.Corso's issued a statement following the raids, saying it follows federal and state laws in its hiring practices.One person has been deported and as many as 24 others have since been released, but officials have provided no details about any of the people who were freed or those who remain in custody. Spokespeople for the federal agencies also have not said what, if anything, was done to help any suspects who might have children at home, in daycare or in school at the time of the arrests.All the information about the suspects is being kept secret for "privacy" reasons, officials said. Kaptur gave a speech on Thursday on the House floor to say she is worried about how immigrant workers in the U.S. are treated and concerned about the people arrested at Corso's."Last Tuesday, in a very well-known greenhouse operation in my district in Erie County, Ohio, near Sandusky, the home of the roller coasters at Cedar Fair, this well-regarded greenhouse operation was raided at the height of this spring season by dozens and dozens and dozens of Federal Immigration, Border Patrol and IRS officials," Kaptur said, according to a transcript printed in the Congressional Record. "At least 114 male and female workers were detained, removed to jails and are being questioned somewhere. But where? Those who are parents have been cruelly separated from their children, with no provision made for the children," she said."The reverberations of this raid in Ohio will be felt across a greenhouse and nursery industry at high season when these companies must have workers. They are highly dependent on thousands of seasonal laborers to perform the necessary work, and I am talking just in Ohio, tens of thousands of workers. The same is true in our border state of Michigan," Kaptur said. "I worry about these workers, and I worry about whether these firms will find the workers to perform the work at such a key time of the year. There simply aren't enough hands left to do the work," she said. "Men and women workers, some of whom had worked for this firm for nearly two decades, were surrounded by ICE officers who came out of another state, Detroit, Michigan, heavily armed with rifles. They even tied the hands of citizens of our country behind their backs before questioning them," she said. "Border Patrol helicopters whirred overhead as workers were handcuffed and made to lie down on their bellies before being taken by bus to detention centers hundreds of miles from Erie County, where this raid occurred," Kaptur said. "As far as I have been able to determine, the women workers, most of whom are mothers, have been placed in the Calhoun County Jail near Battle Creek, Michigan, and the men, in a facility, the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown."I took particular note that Immigration and Customs Enforcement must have notified the Associated Press that took this picture of the impending raid, as the reporter traveled all the way from Michigan to take this particular photo and report on the raid. But the same notification was not extended to the local press nor, for that matter, to local Ohio law enforcement officials who knew nothing about this raid," Kaptur said. "It certainly looks like the Trump administration seems intent on staging a big show on immigration, but where is its interest in real solutions?" Kaptur asked. " Was this raid really about security? Or is it more about intimidation? Or is it trying to divide Americans along economic and racial lines?"Kaptur said in her speech that when she asked to visit the arrested workers, ICE at first said no."When I asked ICE if I could visit the workers in one of the detention centers this past weekend, I was told arrangements could not be made, even though these workers work in the district I represent. This is simply unacceptable," she said. A video of her speech is available online.U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur speaks on C-SPAN about the raid on Corso's.