A Conversation with the Courageous UWS Baseball Coach Who Stood Up to ICE

Tucked between the Hudson River, a dog run, basketball courts, and a version of the “Green Monster” (actually part of the West Side Highway) lies a familiar baseball field that offers refuge for aspiring young ball players. This comfort was interrupted recently when federal enforcement agents appeared on the diamond, questioning children about their legal status. Their coach, Youman Wilder, defended them.

The incident occurred on July 3, one day before a federal bill was passed that made ICE the largest law-enforcement agency in the country. Linda Rosenthal, a NYS Assembly Member for the UWS, said in her newsletter, “The only thing that stood between those kids in Riverside Park and a Florida detention center buried deep in the Everglades was a brave coach who knew the law.”

With a background in law, Wilder founded the Harlem Baseball Hitting Academy (HBHA) in 2003 with a mission to provide underprivileged children with the resources to play baseball. In 20-plus years of coaching around the Upper West Side, this experience is a first for Wilder.

In an interview with Straus News, Wilder discussed his beginnings as a baseball coach, his encounter with ICE agents, and a hopeful path forward for immigration legislation.

Could you tell me about Harlem Baseball Hitting Academy and how you first began coaching?

First one kid came, then two kids, then five kids, and then 40 kids. The next thing I know, I’m coaching kids after school, trying to keep them out of trouble, teaching them about the gym, becoming gym-aware, taking care of their body—a combination of the gym and baseball. For two years, these kids and I practiced every day but Sunday: running up hills, batting cages, practicing in cold weather outside. One day, we were asked to go to Brooklyn to face a young man named Dellin Betances [Dellin Betances later played 10 years in the major leagues for the Yankees and Mets, earning All-Star positions in four consecutive years]. When we got there, we thought we were going to just practice with them, but I saw 500 people there and thought Why are these people here? They replied He’s here to pitch against you guys.

How did your guys do against Betances?

We knocked him out in the second inning. We hit for the cycle against him in the first inning and eight straight singles in the second inning. So they took him out, and I heard a guy say Who are these kids? I said we’re just a couple of kids from the Upper West Side. After that day, we never looked back.

So you have always been based in Harlem?

All in Harlem and all on the streets of Harlem. We don’t have a place that we work in permanently. If it’s winter and we see that it’s going to be 40 [degrees] we’ll be outside.

What age group do you work with?

The youngest kid we’ve ever had is 6, and the oldest have played in the major leagues—they still come back.

So your players have gone professional?

Our first draft pick came, Mike Antonio, our second draft pick came. T.J. Rivera, Taylor Hearn for the Texas Rangers, James Norwood for the Chicago Cubs, and Jackie Bradley Jr., too. Bradley Jr. was great for us; he would leave 15 or 20 tickets and say Go anywhere you want in the stadium. To go into the Boston Red Sox clubhouse and meet Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz, Mookie Betts—it changes people’s lives and perspectives.

So tell me, how did the events unfold the other day with the agents and the kids?

You know, we were ending our workout and I started throwing up some airballs on the three-point line [at the basketball court beside the field]. I saw these guys walking toward our kids, asking them where they’re from, about their parents, and if they’re American. You know, it’s 72nd and Riverside, pretty vanilla. If anything, we were just talking to them because we’re a Latin and Black group. I didn’t see any other people stopped.

Was it clear they were ICE agents?

They were wearing ICE on the front, police on the back.

Were you worried that they were impersonating agents?

We just found out that there was no ICE in the neighborhood that day, and I’m thinking okay, wondering if they were lying [there have been recent accounts of individuals impersonating ICE agents]. But I got a message saying that ICE raided Amelie’s restaurant on 87th and Amsterdam.

How did they respond when you intervened?

They called me a ‘YouTube lawyer’ and threatened to handcuff me for obstruction of justice. I told the kids to go in the back [of the batting cages]. I told the agents, Listen, if you have to jump over these fences, then that’s what you’ll have to do, because you can only get in the batting cages one way. They don’t have any fewer constitutional rights than you. And they walked away.

Were you worried about being detained yourself?

Yes, and then the question is, Do I have due process, or will I be shipped off to Somalia or Guatemala? So that goes [through] your head. Everything was so fast. I tell people it was four or five minutes, but it felt like you were in the back of a car and it was going all over the place and I’m trying to make sure these kids are taken care of, that the kids are in the back, that no one goes in the back, that people hear what I’m saying, and to hear what [the agents] are saying. It was chaos.

Did anyone else get involved?

I hear them yelling at people to get back, and that people are capitulating. One said, You wanna be part of this? It seemed everyone was thinking, Oh my God, no, oh my pearls. Those were not New Yorkers who were out there. Those were not New Yorkers.

What happened next?

I told my kids to get out of there. Don’t even take the train, take the bus. My whole thing is, if they take one of these kids, and then their mother and father show up, who may not be American citizens, then they’ll try to deport the whole family.

What would your advice be to someone who is confronted with a situation like this?

You know, I was lucky, I know the law, but we need to have a civics lesson in this country. We have to let people know they have rights, whether they’re here legally or illegally. Most important, if we have an immigration problem, we need to have people, whether on the left or the right, come together and try to find a solution. The President will only be here for another three years. When he’s finished, we can’t reset and go back to the same ways. If we can start something, whether [Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] or [House minority leader] Hakeem Jeffries can go in and get things forward so that when the next generation comes, they can add on to that and make it work comprehensively for everyone—people who live here, people who want to come here, and people who are here illegally. I hope we’re not here again in two, three, or four years, and that we have people who can create a comprehensive immigration policy that works for everybody.

Lastly, I do want to say this, and it’s very important. We are not victims. We are not playing the victim card; we are not victims. My kids go to some of the best colleges in this country, from Yale to MIT to Johns Hopkins to Georgetown to Stanford to Cornell; they go to some of the best colleges in this country. We graduated 400 kids from college. Our kids can beat you on the baseball field and in the classroom. And it’s very important that people know that. We are not victims of policy. This happened to us, and it could happen to anyone.

Mr. Wilder’s baseball academy: www.harlembaseballacademy.org/