Fact Check: This letter by a school principal about ICE detaining her students is real

Yahoo

08-04-2025

Claim:
An image authentically shows a letter by a school principal in Sackets Harbor, New York, calling for the release of three students and their mother from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
Rating:
In early April 2025, a letter purportedly showing a school principal's appeal for the return of her students from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody spread widely online. Social media users posted the alleged letter on platforms like Bluesky, Facebook and X.
The letter was allegedly written by Jaime Cook, principal of New York's Sackets Harbor Central School that teaches preschool through high school students. It described a situation where ICE officials detained three unnamed students from the same family, even though they allegedly followed "the legal [immigration] process." According to the letter, agents supposedly went "door to door" and "handcuffed" the students before putting them in a van with an "alleged criminal" and taking them to a detention center. Officials also detained their mother, according to the letter.
Per the letter, at least one of the students is a third grader. "We are in shock—and it is that shared shock that has unified our community in the call for our students' release," Cook allegedly wrote.
While Snopes has not independently corroborated every claim in the letter (it's true ICE agents detained the family), we have confirmed it is real. The principal posted the letter on Facebook on April 5, 2025, and Cook confirmed the document's authenticity via email. The school also confirmed the document's authenticity via a phone call. Therefore, we have rated this claim true.
ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. As of this writing, the family has not been identified.
The case gained national media attention in part because it happened in the hometown of U.S. President Donald Trump's "border czar," Tom Homan. He told New York television station 7News he first heard about the situation from a childhood friend, New York Assemblyman Scott Gray of Watertown. Gray said via an emailed statement on April 7 he was "pleased to share that the family at the center of this recent federal immigration matter is being returned home."
Sackets Harbor Central School District Superintendent Jennifer Gaffney also confirmed in an emailed statement that the students and their mother "are returning home."
"At this time, we respectfully ask both the media and the community to honor the family's privacy," the statement read, noting that the district did not plan to respond to further media inquiries.
While the letter did not state the day ICE detained the family, news reports said the arrests happened in an early morning raid on March 27, 2025, that was initially focused on arresting a South African man who is accused of distributing images of child sexual abuse. In addition to the woman and her three kids, three other people were detained in the sweep, per The Associated Press.
The case sparked outrage among the local community, which organized protests calling for the students' return. In a 7News interview about the situation on April 2, Homan said, "ICE is doing everything by the book" and the family was "found in the country illegally" (see 2:15). Here is an excerpt from the conversation (see 2:54):
First of all, the family is not in a jail. They're in a family residential center; it's an open-air campus. So the investigators are doing their due diligence. The victim witness specialists are reviewing the safety and security of the children, medical evaluations — it's usually a part of the investigation, so the investigation continues. It's a criminal investigation.
The full interview is available on 7News' YouTube page.
In Cook's letter, she challenged Homan's description of the family's circumstances:
We are in direct communication with our students. Let me be clear: they are not "being medically evaluated." They are not being "questioned as potential victims." Calling a detention center by another name does not change what it is.
We deserve better than spin and misinformation. My teachers and my students are already hurting.
Family residential centers are detention centers according to ICE's own website.
In her email, Cook said she posted the letter to Facebook "in response to misinformation," claiming the family had no association with the "alleged criminal" ICE initially targeted. "I lent my voice as a person and I do not represent my school district or the teacher's union," she continued.
Homan's interview with 7News did not address Cook's allegations that the students were handcuffed. However, page 10 of the 2015 ICE arrest procedures handbook reads: "Age, size, and gender are not valid reasons for failing to handcuff an individual. Juveniles may be handcuffed for officer safety." There does not appear to be a more recent handbook publicly available at the time of publication.
Gray, the New York assemblyman, said via email he did not know whether the children were handcuffed and could not verify details in Cook's letter. "My focus was on the family first, I will attempt to work on the [other details] next," he said.
7News | WWNY | Watertown. "7News Extra FULL INTERVIEW: Border Czar Tom Homan Talks about ICE Sweep near Sackets Harbor." YouTube, 2 Apr. 2025, www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDGeLrbhfJM. Accessed 7 Apr. 2025.
"Arrest Procedures Handbook." U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 21 July 2015, p. 10, www.ice.gov/doclib/foia/policy/handbookHSI_15-03_ArrestProcedures_Jul21_2015.pdf. Accessed 7 Apr. 2025.
"Detention Management." Www.ice.gov, www.ice.gov/detain/detention-management.
Harbor, Sackets. "Sackets Harbor Central School." Sacketspatriots.org, www.sacketspatriots.org/. Accessed 7 Apr. 2025.
Jaime Montana Cook. "Message from Sackets Harbor Principal." Facebook.com, 5 Apr. 2025, www.facebook.com/jaime.cook.712/posts/pfbid0pTCWysCrkCJmqa9AxEGfoPXjPJFpnaPXMtFVPgTNQhC2pSUGwWmLkAoNFrTDKFNYl?rdid=BlH4dr3FXEIWW8Pd#. Accessed 7 Apr. 2025.
Ormsbee, Molly. "Three Students Detained by ICE Agents near Watertown." WPTZ, 1 Apr. 2025, www.mynbc5.com/article/students-detained-by-ice-upstate-new-york/64349643. Accessed 7 Apr. 2025.
"South African Man Living in Jefferson County Charged with Distribution of Child Pornography." Justice.gov, 28 Mar. 2025, www.justice.gov/usao-ndny/pr/south-african-man-living-jefferson-county-charged-distribution-child-pornography. Accessed 7 Apr. 2025.
Thompson, Carolyn. "Family Swept up by US Immigration Agents Looking for Someone Else Is Released from Custody." AP News, 7 Apr. 2025, apnews.com/article/homan-ice-sackets-harbor-children-detained-acdf67107330d5548cc8fefb80b47da9. Accessed 7 Apr. 2025.