Images and videos of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents rounding up immigrants in major U.S. cities have dominated the news cycle this summer, but Youman Wilder, a youth baseball coach in New York City, told Scripps News he “never thought that was going to happen up here.”
Wilder’s worst nightmares came true earlier this month, when ICE agents entered Manhattan’s Riverside Park just as he and athletes from the Harlem Baseball Hitting Academy were wrapping up their practice. Wilder described seeing the agents approach a group of boys and begin asking them questions. That was when he intervened.
Images and videos of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents rounding up immigrants in major U.S. cities have dominated the news cycle this summer, but Youman Wilder, a youth baseball coach in New York City, told Scripps News he “never thought that was going to happen up here.”
Wilder’s worst nightmares came true earlier this month, when ICE agents entered Manhattan’s Riverside Park just as he and athletes from the Harlem Baseball Hitting Academy were wrapping up their practice. Wilder described seeing the agents approach a group of boys and begin asking them questions. That was when he intervened.
Wilder told ABC7 NY he “directed the boys under his care to retreat into the batting cage, putting himself between them and the agents.”
“There's only one way to get into the cage,” said Wilder. “So my whole thing was I can control that. I was in front of the entrance and that's when I just said, you know, I may die here, but they will not take one of these kids.”
The coach stood his ground, telling ICE agents that the boys were invoking their Fifth Amendment rights to remain silent. Eventually, he said the officers left the area.
In the aftermath, Wilder believed the athletes were “approached by ICE agents because they were racially profiled.” He described a diverse makeup of his team, including kids from Central America and Africa, but he said all of the kids were born in the U.S.
"Upper West Side. The bastion of liberalism," he said. "I would’ve never thought that was going to happen up here.”
Wilder has now changed the time and place of the Harlem Baseball Hitting Academy practices, and he said he is considering changing a team policy banning the use of cell phones during practice. No one caught the encounter on camera, prompting Wilder to consider the safety implications of taking away cell phones.
"I tell my kids all the time, if you want to come, that's fine. No matter what, I'm going to be there at this time and I will protect you,” said Wilder.
ICE responded to the incident by telling Scripps News that the allegations were false, and “ICE has not conducted any recent enforcement activity in the vicinity of Riverside Park.”
