The U.S. Department of Homeland Security appears in an AP-posted body‑camera video that shows a September 2025 immigration raid at an upstate New York factory where agents arrested dozens of workers, according to reporting and the footage cited in a recent lawsuit.
The Associated Press published the body‑camera footage and its analysis on the AP hub for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and news outlets republished the AP dispatch showing agents inside the Nutrition Bar Confectioners plant in Cato, New York, the AP page indicates.
The video, which PBS and other outlets say the AP reviewed, captures officers talking on body cameras as they cleared rooms, directed employees into lines, checked documents and arrested 57 people during the operation, PBS reported on Sept. 11, 2026.
AP’s U.S. Department of Homeland Security hub lists the story and links to the original reporting; PBS notes the footage is from September 2025 and was produced as part of material filed in a lawsuit claiming federal officers exceeded the authority of their search warrants.
The Homeland Security Department provided a statement saying it executed a criminal search warrant at the plant and that the investigation remains open, PBS reports. That statement, posted by DHS through normal channels, did not address the video contents or the lawsuit’s claims.
The AP‑sourced footage shows officers separating employees into groups, asking for immigration documents and detaining some people while releasing others who identified as U.S. citizens, the PBS writeup says. The New York Civil Liberties Union joined a lawsuit that argues the sweep involved mass, nonconsensual questioning.
Context matters for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and ICE policies. PBS notes ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations unit handles workplace raids and that the Trump administration’s largest recent workplace sweep last year at a Hyundai plant led to nearly 500 arrests — a precedent that prompted diplomatic and political fallout.
PBS also reports that DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the agency was “on track” to equip field officers with body cameras by the end of September, a development cited in the AP analysis of the footage and the lawsuit filings.
Why the AP posting matters: the footage gives a court and the public a direct record of agent conduct during workplace enforcement, and it is cited in litigation that asks whether the searches and detentions exceeded constitutional limits. Civil‑rights groups in the PBS piece argue that most of those arrested faced few criminal charges following the sweep.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security reference in the AP hub and the PBS coverage together provide the core factual record now in circulation: the origin of the video, the date the footage was shot, the number of arrests shown and the legal challenge relying on the material.
Sources
- Associated Press — AP hub page for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security listing the body‑camera story and links to AP reporting.
- PBS NewsHour — detailed article that republished and analyzed the AP footage, noted the raid occurred in September 2025, reported 57 arrests and described the lawsuit and DHS statement.
