Federal immigration agents were seen breaking an SUV’s window, throwing a man inside to the ground and handcuffing him on Sunday, Mother’s Day, after the man and his family left church in Chelsea, Massachusetts.
It’s one of many apparent ICE operations that have caused controversy across the Greater Boston area in recent weeks. Agents were seen breaking a car window in New Bedford, Massachusetts, last month before taking a man inside into custody.
In Sunday’s incident, the family was just leaving church when several federal agency vehicles intercepted them at the border between Everett and Chelsea, according to video of the incident shared with Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra. After several minutes of arguing, and refusing to obey their request to roll down their window, agents broke the window to remove the man from the car.
After removing the man from the car, agents threw him to the ground and handcuffed him. Inside the vehicle were the rest of his family, including his wife, children and grandmother.
With the agents above him, the man could be heard asking why they were arresting him, claiming he wasn’t resisting.
“This is an abuse, an abuse of rights,” said Mario Meléndez, a local resident, in Spanish. “They’re violating the law, just like breaking into your house, because you’re in your car, which he paid for, and they want to violate your rights because you’re inside and the person doesn’t want to open the door. They have to respect that right.”
Telemundo New England and NBC10 Boston contacted ICE for comment on this operation but have not received a response.
Kennet Santizo, who recorded the footage, told Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra that he heard the mother screaming, “He has his papers, he has his license!”
Santizo recounted that an officer pulled out his gun very quickly, “and I was scared, the gun was in his face, and then he broke the window.”
The family remained silent in their vehicle, following advice widely given to undocumented immigrants, but residents and council members say that federal agents continue to violate the law.
“Immigration agents and other agents are taking actions that are illegal. They don’t care much about law and order,” Chelsea Councilman Roberto Jiménez Rivera said. “They are simply taking action, and we have taken action to sue them and maintain that we are respecting people’s rights. The city has already sued the administration for things they are doing to us that are illegal.”
Last week in Chelsea, three young men and one of their fathers were arrested by ICE as they left the Chelsea police station.
