Immigrant grandparents living in New York detained while visiting relative in military, family says

A Mexican couple from Brooklyn had been living in New York for two decades when they were detained by border patrol agents during a trip upstate to celebrate Independence Day with a family member in the Army.

Concepcion and Margarito came to the United States undocumented but in 2007 were approved for an official Department of Labor work permit, their son, Eduardo Silva, told News 4 New York. They have valid New York City IDs, which they presented to military police outside of Fort Drum on July 4, he added.

Within a matter of minutes they were surrounded by ICE agents, who took the couple to a federal ICE detention center in Buffalo — hundreds of miles away, their daughter, Perla Silva added.

Concepcion and Margarito, who had successfully used their IDs to access military bases in the past, were joining their family at Fort Drum to celebrate the Fourth of July with their son-in-law, a sergeant in the 10th Mountain Division who is preparing to be deployed to Afghanistan for a third time.

The Silvas are worried not only that their parents will be deported but also for their health — both their mother and father have recently undergone surgery and require medication. They’ve been in communication with their mother, who claims that she has been denied her medicine.

There has still been no word from their father, though.

“I know my dad is scared,” Eduardo Silva told News 4.

His sister, Dulce Silva added: “We don’t know what could happen to them in there. It would be crazy if they didn’t make it out of there.”

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