ICE Detains Farmworker Leader at Routine Appointment, Sparking Outrage
ICE Detains Farmworker Leader Arrest During Routine Appointment Protests Over Detention Activist groups denounced on Friday the detention of Mexican farmworker leader Dolores Bustamante Romero by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New York. The 54-year-old woman was arrested during a routine appointment at the agency’s office in Buffalo. Organizations say the case reflects failures […]
Posted on04/27/26 at 21:56
- ICE Detains Farmworker Leader
- Arrest During Routine Appointment
- Protests Over Detention
Activist groups denounced on Friday the detention of Mexican farmworker leader Dolores Bustamante Romero by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New York.
The 54-year-old woman was arrested during a routine appointment at the agency’s office in Buffalo.
Organizations say the case reflects failures in the immigration system and has sparked immediate mobilization.
Bustamante Romero, a member of the Alianza Nacional de Campesinas and the Workers Center of Central New York, attended her scheduled appointment on Wednesday.
ICE Detains Farmworker Leader and Sparks Controversy
Mexican farmworker leader faces deportation after ICE appointment in New York
➡️https://t.co/7Ox3y0PVr9 pic.twitter.com/lR05riGAXC
— La Voz de Michoacán (@vozmichoacan) April 25, 2026
She was detained that day by ICE agents, according to the New York Immigration Coalition.
The organization stated that the activist “was disappeared to detention centers outside the state.”
The case was reported by Investigative Post.
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An ICE spokesperson said the woman had exhausted all legal avenues to remain in the United States.
According to that version, Bustamante had been under a deportation order since 2018.
However, her attorneys dispute that claim.
The report also states that she was transferred to a detention center in Ohio to process her deportation.
This situation is at the center of the controversy sparked by ICE’s detention of a farmworker leader in New York.
A Case Shaped by the Immigration System
Activists denounce the detention of a farmworker leader by ICE in northern New York https://t.co/GZwOfX9Qb3
— Departamento19 (@Departamento19) April 24, 2026
Activist groups explained that Bustamante regularly attended her ICE appointments.
This followed the denial of her asylum application due to a “technicality.”
They indicated her case began after a traffic stop in 2014.
At that time, state police handed her over to border patrol agents.
Since then, she has been “trapped in the legal immigration system.”
A day before her appointment, she left a written message.
In it, she said she would attend because she wanted to “do things right,” despite her fear.
She also stated that she pays taxes and contributes to the economy.
She emphasized that she has not committed “any crime” in the United States.
Bustamante said she has lived in the country for 30 years.
Personal Story and Growing Mobilization
In her testimony, Dolores Bustamante said she crossed the border in 2003 with her 3-year-old daughter.
She explained she was fleeing an abusive husband, according to El Universal.
She stated she feared for her life and that police in Mexico did not help her.
Since then, she has spent more than 10 years in immigration courts.
Bustamante works as an apple picker.
She also has children and grandchildren in the United States.
She revealed that one of her sons was deported to Mexico.
He was later killed by cartels, and his death was not investigated after his body was found in 2017.
For this reason, she says she fears for her own life if deported.
Following her detention, activist groups called for a protest.
The demonstration demands “freedom for Dolores.”
It is scheduled for Saturday at the First Unitarian Church of Rochester.
The case continues to draw attention among immigrant rights organizations, keeping the ICE detention of a farmworker leader in New York in the spotlight.