Statewide caravan for immigrant rights stops in Elizabethtown

Activists highlight the role of migrants in the North Country’s economy and culture

By David Escobar

A statewide caravan for immigrant rights stopped in Elizabethtown this week, drawing dozens of Adirondack residents to support migrant workers and their families amid federal immigration crackdowns.

About 40 people gathered in front of the Essex County Clerk’s Office, holding a large wooden sign reading “Immigrants Feed Us.” Many expressed concern that the Trump administration’s plan to deport millions of people in the country illegally could harm local economies that rely heavily on foreign-born labor.

Thousands of immigrants work in New York’s agricultural industries on dairy farms, in apple orchards and in food processing facilities.

“As our labor force has diversified, we now rely on immigrant labor to staff our farms and harvest food and process food,” said Essex resident Zuzia Kwasniewski, who grew up working as a farmhand in the Champlain Valley.

The demonstration was one stop on a week-long trip across New York organized by Rural and Migrant Ministry, a nonprofit that advocates for farmworkers.

Starting in Long Island, the caravan made its way upstate along Route 9N to Plattsburgh before continuing west to Potsdam, Massena and Canton. On Thursday, protesters will stop in Sackets Harbor, the Thousand Islands village where a family was detained after an ICE raid at a Jefferson County dairy farm.

“The message to our elected officials is to pause, to turn down the vitriol and examine what these policies are doing to our own economies [and] what these policies are doing to their own constituents,” said Richard Witt, an Episcopal minister and executive director of Rural and Migrant Ministry in the Hudson Valley.

Witt said the goal of the caravan is to connect rural communities concerned about immigration policies and their effects on local economies. He said immigrants are critical to industries beyond farming, including elder care, health care and higher education.

“I think immigrants are the backbone and the foundation of our economy,” Witt said. “Without them, we’re in trouble.”

Local attendees echoed that concern, particularly around labor shortages in the Adirondacks. Data suggests that job opportunities are growing in sectors like hospitality and elder care, but a lack of workers may keep roles vacant.

“Our economy is at stake,” said Peter Hahn of Ray Brook. “In Saranac Lake, for instance, there are lots of businesses that are closing simply because they can’t get people.”

Hahn, who described himself as the son of immigrants, said he also worries about people being deported without due process, especially to dangerous countries. “It’s important that we support people and not treat them cruelly,” he said.

Organizers also highlighted how immigration enforcement has created fear in rural towns where immigrants have lived and worked for years.

“So many people are afraid to leave their homes, to go to the grocery store,” said Lisa Baker, an organizer with Rural and Migrant Ministry. “Kids are afraid when they go to school that their parents might not be there when they come back.”

For Nell Painter, a retired professor and historian, the demonstration was both a message of support and a reminder of the region’s diversity.

“We are a multicultural, multiethnic, multiracial, multigendered society,” she said. “And the idea of just stamping all that out — it’s really pernicious.”

Painter said she, like many of her neighbors in the Adirondacks, will continue to rely on migrants to produce the region’s food supply.

“We’re dependent on immigrant workers. We need to respect their workers’ rights, not just their rights as people who are working in the United States for Americans, but also their rights as working people.”

David Escobar is a Report For America Corps Member. He reports on diversity issues in the Adirondacks through a partnership between North Country Public Radio and Adirondack Explorer.