Two family members of a Fort Drum soldier remain in immigration detention in Buffalo. Concepcion and Margarito Silva, both Brooklyn residents, were arrested on July 4 when they tried to visit their son-in-law for the holiday.
NBC TV Channel 4 in New York City first broke the story. Family members told the TV station the Silvas are from Mexico and have been living in the country for more than 20 years.
The Silvas arrived at Fort Drum’s gates and showed security personnel a New York City ID card, which isn’t accepted at Fort Drum. In a statement, Fort Drum said its security then identified a “discrepancy” in the Silvas’ passports and called U.S. Border Patrol. A Border Patrol statement said the couple admitted to being in the country illegally and were detained and transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
https://twitter.com/MaketheRoadNY/status/1016406591850078208
Monday afternoon, the couple’s daughter, Perla Silva, posted a video on the Twitter feed of immigrants rights group, Make The Road NY, pleading for ICE to let her parents go. "Our family is devastated by what happened. We are most worried for my mother and my father who have serious health issues," Perla Silva said. "Please ICE. We just ask for them to come home safe."
According to the family, the son-in-law is an Army sergeant at Fort Drum who has been deployed twice to Afghanistan. His name hasn’t been made public.
The incident comes a month after a pizza delivery man was detained while he was delivering food at an Army base in Brooklyn.
