Joe Mahoney in The Daily Star reports that Columbia County's Mexican restaurants have become a symbolic and real center of immigration trouble in New York. A woman was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers Aug. 13 outside the Casa Latina restaurant in Hudson. Pro-immigration activists claim the restaurant is being targeted by federal ICE agents after its owner, Maria Romero Valdez, has repeatedly supported allowing undocumented immigrants to qualify for driver's licenses in New York. Last week the management of Mexican Radio suggested in a social media post that the Aug. 11 closing of the restaurant was partially due to its workers being "forcibly and violently ejected from this country, tearing out the very soul of our kitchen staff." Steve Choi, director of the New York Immigration Coalition, says studies show immigrants contribute an estimated $15 billion in state and local taxes in the state. “These raids are not only cruel and inhumane, they are downright foolish — threatening families, local businesses and entire economies as evidenced by the shutdown of community institutions like Mexican Radio," Choi said. Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin has a different view. "Restaurants come and go and these excuses are nonsense," McLaughlin said. "I thought the food at Mexican Radio was at best average and it was expensive." Khaalid Walls, a spokesperson for ICE, claimed Mexican Radio has not been investigated this year. Walls did not respond to questions about if any of the Mexican Radio workers had been detained recently. Previously, an ICE spokesperson only confirmed some activity in Hudson the day of the Casa Latina arrest. Read more about this story in The Daily Star.