Organizers and supporters of the Workers’ Center of CNY, based in Syracuse, spent a rainy Tuesday morning standing in solidarity in front of the Buffalo Detention Center on Federal Drive in Batavia.
The group held a rally for Hector Navarro Miranda, a husband and father of three US citizen children and member of the group, at his bail hearing this morning.
Hector was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents outside his home in Syracuse on December 21, 2017, after taking his wife to work.
The group says Hector has no criminal record and has lived in the U.S. since 2004 after escaping conditions in his native Guatemala.
His case was administratively closed in January of 2017, according to Rebecca Fuentes, Organizer for Workers’ Center of CNY.
“He is loved by everyone,” says Fuentes.
“He is a very quiet person, he is there for his children and his community and we miss him a lot. We don’t understand why he had to be detained this way.”
After a 15 minute hearing, Hector was released on $5,000 bail, which was raised by supporters of the Workers’ Center of CNY. The group has been supporting Hector’s wife Arely and their three children since he has been detained. Arely has been fighting her own deportation for about a year and has been reporting to ICE monthly.
Hector is now free on bail and will appear in Buffalo Immigration Court sometime in June or July.