A March 18 article on the impact of a raid by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency at a factory in New Beford, Mass., incorrectly said that Marta Escoto, one of those arrested, was not allowed to contact her family for three days. She was, in fact, allowed a telephone call on the evening of her arrest. The Post also erred in not contacting ICE in preparing the article. ICE spokesman Marc Raimondi said the agency "took extraordinary steps to respect humanitarian concerns during the New Bedford worksite enforcement operation that included months of coordination with the Massachusetts Department of Safety and the humanitarian release of more than 90 of the 361 illegal aliens apprehended."
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Immigration Raid Rips Families
About 360 employees of Michael Bianco Inc., in New Bedford, Mass., were detained by federal officials for possible deportation as illegal immigrants after a raid on the company.
(By Stephan Savoia -- Associated Press)
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Escoto was quickly flown to Texas and held at Port Isabel, near the border. For three days she was not allowed to make phone calls, she said. On the third day, she was allowed a five-minute call to tell her family where she was. Jessie had missed an appointment with a gastroenterologist to discuss inserting a feeding tube.
Thinking about her children, Escoto could not sleep at night. "I would see them, smell them," she said.
With dozens of children like Escoto's left without parents, the raid immediately sparked a public outcry here. The Massachusetts Department of Social Services dispatched two teams of 18 social workers to ask detainees in Texas how their children were being cared for.
In a letter to the chief of the Department of Homeland Security, Sen John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) called for an investigation. In an editorial in the Boston Globe, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) decried "our broken immigration system," saying the government had "no effective plan to identify and help the children who would be left alone."
Under public pressure, immigration officials began to send single parents home, or if they had arrested both parents, to release one. But as of late last week, New Bedford school officials said the children of at least six arrested immigrants remained in the care of someone other than their parents, and many more were missing one parent.
One of Escoto's sisters was released to care for her infant daughter. Last Wednesday, Escoto was brought to an airport. She didn't know whether she was being deported or returned home until she landed in Boston, where she phoned her family.
Dropped off at night in a deserted PriceRite parking lot, she glimpsed Daniel in her brother-in-law's car. She rushed to hold her son, her tears dampening his face. " Mami, mami, mami!" Daniel said.
At her sister's home, her nieces and nephew, sisters and brother-in-law crowded around her, and she embraced each in turn. Spotting her ailing daughter, Jessie, she swept her up, bathing her face in kisses.
"Your mami came home to take care of you," she said. "I'm here."
"I am so happy," she later said, looking exhausted and wearing the same powder-blue sweatshirt and jeans she had on the day of the arrest. "I thought I might not come back to see them."
Still, she talked about her two sons, and her sister and brother, all still in custody in Texas.
And she promised her children, weeping, "I'll never leave you again, I'll never leave you."
Unlike some detainees, Escoto has not been outfitted with an electronic tracking device so immigration authorities can keep tabs on her. But in her pocket, she keeps a folded paper with the date in October when she will appear before an immigration judge. This judge's decision could test Escoto's promise to her children.
Staff writer Sylvia Moreno contributed to this report.
