A quiet day of baseball apply took a disturbing flip in Manhattan’s Riverside Park on July 3, when Yeoman Wilder, founding father of the Harlem Baseball Hitting Academy, says six ICE brokers walked onto the sphere and commenced questioning his gamers; center and highschool youngsters simply there to coach.
Wilder, who holds a grasp’s diploma in legislation, initially observed the officers strolling previous the basketball courts however didn’t suppose a lot of it. “I simply thought, eh, they’re ICE officers, as a result of I’d seen them in Washington Heights earlier than,” he recalled.
However what occurred subsequent was removed from routine. Wilder says the brokers approached his gamers and began asking intrusive questions on their backgrounds. “The place they’re from, who’re their mother and father,” he remembered. “And I simply thought, ‘whoa, whoa, that is… this isn’t good.’”
That’s when Wilder stepped in. Citing their constitutional rights, he instructed the youngsters to stay silent. “I informed my youngsters to stroll to the again of the cages, proper right here, and I stated they’re going to invoke their Fifth Modification rights, they’re not going to say something.”
The confrontation escalated when one of many brokers reportedly raised his voice and dismissed Wilder’s authority. “That’s once I was referred to as a YouTube lawyer,” he stated. “And I stated, ‘No, I simply know the way the Structure works.’”
Wilder says all the kids on the sphere are Americans. “Their mother and father are from the Dominican Republic, South America, Mexico, Africa—however their youngsters had been born right here,” he emphasised. “They’ve a 14th Modification entitlement to dwell right here.”
Eyewitness Information reached out to Homeland Safety for verification, however has but to obtain a response. Wilder maintains that the lads had been totally uniformed with clearly marked vests and had been visibly armed. “They appeared like the true factor,” he stated. “From what I’ve seen in Washington Heights and what I noticed that day.”
Within the wake of the incident, Wilder reached out to elected officers, together with Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, who stood by his choice to protect the gamers. “Nobody has the precise to take you away or to get any of your data,” she stated.
Since that encounter, the workforce’s apply schedule has modified, however the emotional injury lingers. Wilder stated solely two gamers have returned to the sphere. “I’ve by no means in my life thought this was going to occur on the Higher West Aspect, in New York Metropolis,” he stated. “That entire factor—till it occurs to you, you’re not conscious. And it occurred to us.”