Bodycam Shows ICE Raid at New York Nutrition Bar Plant
WATCH: On-scene video documentation is embedded below →
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Federal Agents Sweep New York Nutrition Bar Plant in Mass Immigration Raid
Newly surfaced body camera footage captures the tense, hours-long execution of a federal immigration raid at a nutrition bar factory in upstate New York, where agents detained 57 workers after announcing a search warrant over the plant's loudspeaker system. The video, recorded in September 2025, shows officers sweeping production lines, warehouse aisles, and locked bathrooms as they separated employees by citizenship status.
- The raid took place at the Nutrition Bar Confectioners plant in Cato, New York, a town of roughly 2,500 people east of Syracuse.
- Federal authorities from multiple agencies executed a search warrant and made 57 arrests during the operation.
- Footage shows agents ordering a manager to announce their presence over the factory loudspeaker before sweeping the building.
- Male officers broke through a locked bathroom door, instructing female employees to pull up their pants and exit.
- Workers were lined up and separated into groups of U.S. citizens and potential noncitizens inside a break room.
The Raid Begins at the Front Door
The sprawling snack-food factory appeared closed when the small army of immigration officers arrived after 9 a.m., according to an Associated Press analysis of the footage. Following a brief discussion about whether to force their way inside, a manager opened the front door. From that moment, body cameras were running continuously.
The recording opens with an officer coordinating with facility management. "We need an announcement made. Can you help us with that?" the officer asks. "I could," the manager replies. "Okay, perfect. So what we need to do is have the employees in the back be made aware. We have a search warrant for the facility."
The announcement that followed echoed through the plant: "Attention, all Nutrition Bar construction employees, the police are here with a search warrant. Please move to the production hallway and turn off all equipment by hitting the e-safe button. Thank you."
Within minutes, agents had stopped production lines and began moving through the building. The footage captures officers sweeping warehouse aisles stacked with pallets of boxed product, checking storage rooms, offices, and hallways for anyone in hiding.
A Locked Bathroom Door and Raised Voices
The most dramatic sequence in the footage unfolds near the restrooms, where male officers encountered a locked door and began shouting instructions in broken Spanish at female employees inside, demanding they come out. After about 10 seconds, officers broke through the door.
One woman was outside a stall and another was inside. A male officer peered through a locked stall door, and his body camera revealed a woman sitting on the toilet. "Miss, pull up your pants. Come out of the bathroom," he told her. The woman replied that she could not come out in that condition.
The audio captures the repeated commands: "Open the door! Open the door! … With force. Get down! Open the door now! Females, females, females. Sit down."
Workers were then herded toward a break room, where agents moved through the crowd. The video shows officers directing people to sit and organizing them into groups as the processing began.
Separated by Citizenship Status
The centerpiece of the operation was the one-by-one questioning of each worker about their immigration status. "They asked each person, one by one, whether they were U.S. citizens," the footage documents, as agents requested documents and posed questions about entry into the United States.
Citizens were directed to one side of the room; those who could not establish citizenship went to the other. "You good? Yeah … You're out of … Okay, so those are being checked. Yes, citizens. Okay. Everything in there is not U.S. citizens. Over on this side."
According to the accounts circulating with the footage, investigators interviewed the general manager and said they were looking into hiring practices and potential fraudulent documents. Some employees were pregnant; others were parents who expressed concern for their children at home. At least one employee asked to speak with an attorney before answering questions and was told she would be arrested.
The operation's scope stretched across the entire facility, with officers covering all exits while others swept the interior, homing in on locked doors and checking every office, storage room, and hallway. Fifty-seven people were detained in total.
| Incident Parameter | Observation at the Scene |
|---|---|
| Location | Nutrition Bar Confectioners plant, Cato, New York |
| Date on body camera timestamp | September 2025, after 9 a.m. |
| Total arrests made | 57 individuals |
| Entry method | Manager opened front door after brief discussion of forced entry |
| Announcement method | Manager broadcast over factory loudspeaker |
| Bathroom encounter | Officers broke through locked door after roughly 10 seconds |
| Screening process | One-by-one citizenship questioning in break room |
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Core Questions and Unresolved Issues
- What specific evidence supported the search warrant's scope, and did document collection exceed its terms?
- How were U.S. citizens identified and released during the hours-long processing period?
- What legal recourse exists for workers who were detained but not ultimately charged?
A Rare Window Into Workplace Enforcement
The footage offers an unusually detailed look inside a workplace immigration sweep, a type of operation that is rarely captured on camera from the inside. The body cameras recorded agents debating which files to seize and when to release employees who were U.S. citizens, a process that stretched over several hours.
The video's release has renewed public debate about the tactics used during such operations, particularly the handling of female employees in restrooms and the conditions in the processing area. Workers described being lined up in what the footage calls a hot break room, with crowds packed together while agents worked through individual status checks.
Investigators focused on hiring practices and potential fraudulent documents, interviewing the general manager as part of that inquiry. The operation involved federal authorities from several agencies working together, with officers covering exits and sweeping the interior simultaneously.
What remains unclear is how the legal challenge filed over the search warrants will proceed, and what it may reveal about the boundaries of federal enforcement authority in workplace settings.
What questions should investigators answer first about how this raid was conducted?
