A youth baseball coach from New York City, Youman Wilder, is receiving a lot of attention after he stepped in to protect his team when armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers reportedly came up to and questioned his players during practice in Riverside Park last month. Wilder, who has a master’s degree in law, made sure his players’ constitutional rights were respected. He says all of them are U.S. citizens.
The situation happened on July 3 while Wilder, the founder of the Harlem Baseball Hitting Academy, was coaching middle and high school students. He said he saw six armed ICE officers in uniform, whom he recognized from past encounters in Washington Heights, walk by before going straight up to the kids. Wilder told AOL that the officers started asking the children “where they’re from” and “who their parents are.”
