Family detained in immigration raid in US freed after outcry

A mother and her three children who were taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as part of a sweep in the tiny home town of the Trump administration's "border tsar", Tom Homan, have been released after days of outcry from community figures, advocates and protesters.

- Marina Dunbar

About one thousand protesters marched outside Homan's home in a small New York village at the weekend calling for the release of the family after they were detained last month. The family has not been named or spoken publicly.

Jaime Cook, the principal of the Sackets Harbor school district where the children were reportedly pupils, wrote a letter pleading for their safe return. She described the children as having "no ties to criminal activity" and said they were "loved in their classrooms".

The family was taken into custody in a 27 March raid at a large dairy farm in the remote town that has a population of fewer than 1,500.

The target of the raid was reportedly a South African national charged with trafficking in child sexual abuse material, whom they apprehended, Customs and Border Protection agents said.