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Bryan MacCormack, executive director of the Columbia County Sanctuary Movement, outside his office in Hudson, N.Y. on July 24, 2019. A video in which he thwarted the ICE arrest of two undocumented immigrants went viral in March. lessBryan MacCormack, executive director of the Columbia County Sanctuary Movement, outside his office in Hudson, N.Y. on July 24, 2019. A video in which he thwarted the ICE arrest of two undocumented immigrants ... morePhoto: Mallory Moench/Times Union
HUDSON — Before a viral video featuring Bryan MacCormack thwarting the arrest of two undocumented immigrants was viewed tens of millions of times, he was a grassroots activist in the small city in New York where he grew up.
A few months later, not much has changed.
Last week, MacCormack, 30, crouched outside a Hudson warehouse cutting wire to craft a cage around a stuffed figure made to look like pictures of migrant children in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers. Beside him, local teenagers getting ready for a protest downtown chanted "No justice, no peace, ICE set our children free!"
In MacCormack's viral March 5 video, ICE agents stop his car, intending to arrest his passengers, two undocumented immigrants from Central America, who had just left Hudson City Court. MacCormack disputes the constitutionality of the warrants the agents are holding. He explains the difference between a warrant signed by a judge, that allows ICE agents to enter a property or vehicle to do searches and make arrests, and an administrative warrant from the federal government, which does not.
"Those aren't warrants of arrest, sir," MacCormack tells the agents. "I have no obligation to (abide) by those warrants."
The agent asks MacCormack if he's familiar with the section of immigration law that criminalizes harboring, transporting and smuggling "illegal aliens," an offense that carries a penalty of up to a year in prison.
"I am," MacCormack says.
The video, first published by the Times Union, was picked up by social video news organization NowThis and went viral. It was re-published around the world. MacCormack was interviewed by national television media.
The viral video spotlighted MacCormack and Columbia County Sanctuary Movement (CCSM), the immigrant rights group he directs and co-founded with his partner, Gloria Martinez, along with Juan Basilio Sanchez, and his son Juan Simon Sanchez. For the group, the video isn't about fame — it's about awareness.
"That's 50 million more people who know their rights," Martinez said.
Not everyone in the largely rural and conservative county agrees with CCSM, nor do immigration officials. In Hudson, 18 percent of the population is foreign born, the most recent census data shows. In Columbia County, that number drops to 6 percent.
ICE spokesman Khaalid Walls said individuals who impede ICE recklessly endanger not only officers but also immigrants and potentially innocent bystanders.
"Despite these attempts to obstruct ICE's lawful efforts to apprehend criminal aliens and immigration violators, the agency remains committed to its efforts to uphold public safety," Walls said in a statement.
Assemblyman Chris Tague, a Republican whose district includes part of the county, said in a statement that "we should not be unduly attacking our fellow brothers and sisters" but that "we are a country of laws."
"If these groups truly wanted to help people and provide a future for them, one would think they would provide information to help naturalize undocumented immigrants instead of drawing a line in the sand against a federal organization and folks doing their jobs to protect us," Tague's statement read.
State Senator Daphne Jordan, a Republican whose district includes the county, is the granddaughter of Greek immigrants.
"I know firsthand that we are a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws," her statement read. "I oppose New York becoming a 'Sanctuary State' because it sends a terrible message about lack of respect for our nation's laws and for the men and women of law enforcement who risk their lives upholding those laws and keeping us safe."
On the other side of the aisle, Assemblywoman Didi Barrett, a Hudson Democrat, honored MacCormack with a proclamation in May.
"Seeing somebody who just with the right kind of knowledge and demeanor can make such a huge difference is very empowering," she said.
Barrett's now partnering with MacCormack to share information to teach immigrants about their legal rights. She said respecting immigration law is fundamental to what she does and that's why it's important to educate about legal rights.
"We truly are a nation of immigrants," she said. "It's essential to me as an elected official to make sure that part of America remains a part of our value system."
CCSM said they have received critical messages and even death threats from people who don't agree with them.
"It's a lot of age-old rhetoric, vigilantes stalking our community members and saying to go back to your country," said MacCormack. "I think we're changing hearts and minds in the county and we really have an opportunity to change things politically here."
CCSM doesn't see it as productive to engage in debates and instead focuses on work that stemmed from rising levels of hate before President Donald Trump's election.
"I had severe anxiety about what was to come if President Trump was going to be elected," said Martinez, 29, a U.S-born citizen who grew up in a mixed-status family.
Trump as a candidate promised to step up enforcement of immigration laws to deport the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country. Around 940,000 are in New York, the Migration Policy Institute estimates.
"I thought we have to do something, there's nothing up here. Through conversations with other people, CCSM grew out of that," Martinez said. "For the longest time, my mother and my siblings, we knew what it's like to be in this fight alone, and creating CCSM has been the support system to help people who went through similar situations as we did, to make them feel like we're not totally alone in this, a bigger fight."
Martinez's mother immigrated from El Salvador after the country's civil war in the 1980s and was detained briefly after she crossed the border illegally. She was supposed to go back to court but was too afraid she'd be deported and separated from her U.S.-born daughter, Martinez said.
After years of living under a deportation order, Martinez's mother applied for temporary immigration relief for people from disaster-afflicted countries. Last year, she became a permanent resident under an act that grants status to some Central Americans.
In early 2017, Martinez's uncle was deported. Her aunt regularly checked in at ICE's office in Latham, bolstered by local supporters, and was allowed to stay in the country.
Deportations aren't limited to the Trump administration, but after the president's election in 2016, the immigration debate intensified. Trump implemented drastic policy changes — from banning the citizens of seven countries to expediting deportations to sending migrants back to Mexico to wait for asylum. ICE enforcement and the number of illegal border crossings have risen, government data shows, making overcrowded detention facilities a lightning rod for criticism.
Last week, MacCormack spent the day at a partner organization, Kite's Nest, teaching local teenagers about immigration detention before a protest in downtown Hudson. As teens marched, banging drums and chanting slogans, along fashionable Warren Street, MacCormack shared more about the organization's backstory.
CCSM has a loose membership of around 300 immigrants and 400 allies. In Hudson, MacCormack said, immigrants are largely Bangladeshis who arrived decades ago or more recently arrived Central Americans working in service industries, agriculture, construction and landscaping.
CCSM's first victory in 2017 was advocating for Hudson to adopt a welcoming and inclusive city resolution. Now, the group runs trainings about immigrants' legal rights. They published a family preparedness booklet to help parents prep for the worst — arrest and deportation. If needed, they trigger a core deportation defense group and rapid response team that spreads information through a mass text system, assesses how the arrest was conducted, supports the affected family, locates the individual detained, and connects them with legal services.
MacCormack said he doesn't know any immigration lawyers in Columbia County. Earlier this year, he went through a week-long Department of Justice program that trained him to represent clients in immigration court once CCSM is officially accredited by the DOJ to do so.
CCSM also accompanies immigrants to local courts and transports them to immigration courts in New York City or Buffalo. Social services in the area call on them for translation.
During last week's protest, MacCormack wore a shirt that read "Abolish CBP Abolish ICE Abolish Borders".
"We believe that agencies that have demonstrated track records of human rights abuse and people dying in their custody, they have no ground to exist," MacCormack said. "Do I actually think we're going to abolish ICE in my lifetime? Probably not. Are we going to be able to reform them? 100 percent."
MacCormack explained current immigration enforcement agencies were formed after 9/11 and he believes the government should first address the root causes of immigration.
"We live in a time where the national government is anti-immigrant," MacCormack said, "and we celebrate Christopher Columbus as an immigrant. They want to celebrate the colonial nature of immigration, which is settler immigration. And they want the benefits of open borders for capital, but when it comes to people it's a different story."
MacCormack's awakening to immigration issues started while he was growing up in Hudson, where he said his high school soccer team, whose coach was El Salvadorian, had the only non-white players for miles.
MacCormack attended Northeastern University where he crafted a specialized major in social advocacy. He partnered with Palestinian refugees, Mexican activists, and the Fight for 15 minimum wage movement. After organizing adjunct faculty in Boston, he left a labor union job to go on a three-month photo documentary journey on the U.S.-Mexico border.
MacCormack's plan after that was to be at home for the summer to work as a wedding photographer — his long-time side gig — before leaving again. Four years later, he hasn't left yet.
Last week's protest over, MacCormack settled into his sparse one-room office donated by a law firm on Warren Street. This year, he became full-time salaried in CCSM, which is funded by grants and private donations, and hopes to hire another staff member soon. He's still lobbying for New York to pass a law prohibiting ICE arrests in courts and wants to see more sanctuary city resolutions, immigrant legal services, community members knowing their rights, and organizations like his built.
"The fact that we have done that as a small volunteer-led organization in Hudson is remarkable for me," he said.
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