SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — José Criollo is a staple of his church, whether he’s within the chapel walls or the crowded rooms of an ICE detention facility.
As Criollo left his construction job in Syracuse, ICE agents cuffed them and drove him over to the ICE headquarters in Mattydale, and then to its immigrant detention center in Batavia. (We’ve reached out to ICE for comment and have not heard back yet.) They also took his daughter’s boyfriend, Adrián Ramirez.
Criollo, who’s from Ecuador and has lived in the U.S. for nearly 30 years, returned to his family Saturday after three weeks in a jail full of undocumented immigrants like himself. He was overjoyed, but the fear of detention lingers with him. “It [feels] like ICE is behind me,” he said.
The next morning, he reunited with his friends at All Saints Church, in Syracuse, for a mass painted with hearty welcome and anger at the federal immigration system…