What would you do if your ice agent approaches the kids on your youth sports team during practice?
Youman Wilder, founder of Harlem Baseball Hitting Academy, said he found himself in that exact position. And he didn’t hesitate.
“I heard them say, ‘Where did you come from? Where did your parents come from?’,” Wilder told MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace. “And I just intervened and said it was very inappropriate to ask these kids what they were saying… I’d have them implement their fifth amendment correctly and don’t say anything to you.”
He said one of the agents replied, “Yeah, another YouTube lawyer.”
Wilder asked the kids to move behind the batting cage.
“I’ve got some tough New York City kids, so it means something is really going on for them to scare me,” Wilder said in an interview with CNN. As the kids shuffled from the agent, Wilder said he reassured them by saying, “Listen, I’m not going to go through me.”
In an interview with the same CNN, Wilder continued, saying, “I’m willing to die to make sure you’re home.” “He doubled his statement and said, “I am willing to die today.”
Wilder wants to make it clear that the kids who play baseball with him are not victims, but great children with a bright future. In fact, 45 of his players were drafted into the Major Leagues.
“We were graduating from college and roaming with degrees from Stanford, Princeton and Harvard. All African-American and Latino kids told Wallace, “So we do a very good job.”
In the end, he said, it all comes down to protecting others, especially the children.
“We have to speak up to people and have a better way to do this,” Wilder said. He added, “We have to care about the people, the young people.”
When he stood up to the armed ice agent, Wilder told Wallace, “The only thing I had that day was my bishop, my bishop, my mother in my ears, the constitution and prayers.”
Since the interview aired on MSNBC on July 14, an ICE spokesman said, “ICE has not carried out any recent enforcement activities near Riverside Park.”
Wilder said officers were armed and were wearing camouflage uniforms that identified them as ice agents.
Linda Rosenthal, a New York lawmaker representing the Upper West Side, mentioned the conflict in her newsletter.
“I recently learned that Ice Agent had approached a group of children attending baseball practice near a batting cage near West 71st Street in Riverside Park,” Rosenthal wrote as he first reported. “The only thing standing between the kids at Riverside Park and the Florida Detention Center buried deep inside the Everglades was a brave coach who knew the law.
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