Federal immigration agents were seen breaking the window of a SUV, throwing a man to the ground and handcanding him on Sunday, Mother’s Day, after man and his family left the church in Chelsea, Massachusetts.
It is one of the many apparent ice operations that have caused controversy in the Boston metropolitan area in recent weeks. The agents were seen breaking a car window in New Bedford, Massachusetts, last month before putting a man inside the custody.
In Sunday’s incident, the family had just left the church when several vehicles of the Federal Agency intercepted them on the border between Everett and Chelsea, according to the video of the incident shared with Telemundo New England. After several minutes of discussing and refusing to obey their request to roll through their window, the agents broke the window to get the man out of the car.
After getting the man out of the car, the agents threw him to the ground and handcuffed him. Inside the vehicle were the rest of his family, including his wife, his children and grandmother.
With the agents above him, the man was heard asking why they were arresting him, claiming that he did not resist.
“This is an abuse, an abuse of rights,” said Mario Meléndez, a local resident, in Spanish. “They are violating the law, just as I break into their home, because you are in your car, which you paid, and want to violate your rights because you are inside and the person does not want to open the door. They have to respect that right.”
Telemundo New England and NBC10 Boston contacted ICE to comment on this operation, but they have not received an answer.
Kennet Santizo, who recorded the images, told Telemundo New England that he listened to the mother screaming: “He has her papers, he has her license!”
Santizo said that an officer took his gun very quickly: “And I was scared, the gun was on his face and then broke the window.”
The family remained silent in their vehicle, after widely granted advice 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 about law and order,” said Chelsea councilor Roberto Jiménez Rivera. “They are simply taking action, and we have taken measures to sue them and maintain that we are respecting the rights of people. The city has already demanded the administration for things that are making us illegal.”
Last week in Chelsea, three young men and one of their parents were arrested by ICE when they left the Chelsea police station.
