A Chelsea family is suing the federal government over a Mother’s Day arrest in which federal immigration agents shattered a car window and detained the family patriarch.
“This is a case that is reflecting ICE’s increasingly aggressive immigration tactics and something that we’re seeing across the country,” said attorney Mirian Albert with the group Lawyers for Civil Rights, which is representing Daniel Flores Martinez, his wife, and three children in the suit. “So, it’s important that communities know that they’re able to hold ICE accountable under the law.”
The family filed an administrative complaint with the federal government months ago but received no response. GBH News reached out to the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security, but has received no response about the arrest, complaint or lawsuit.
The federal lawsuit, filed this week in the District of Massachusetts, seeks damages under the Federal Tort Claims Act for excessive force, wrongful arrest, assault, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Albert says Flores Martinez had a misdemeanor more than 10 years ago that resulted in probation and counseling.
ICE agents had been monitoring Flores Martinez when they blocked and pulled over the family’s vehicle on their way to church, according to the complaint. Masked officers surrounded the car, but didn’t identify themselves or produce a warrant, and demanded identification.
The officers smashed the passenger window, opened the door, and dragged Flores Martinez out of the car and onto the street in front of his wife, Kenia Guerrero, and his children, said Albert.
Albert said one of the children has epilepsy and cerebral palsy, and the incident was “very traumatic” for that child. “At some point during the arrest, the broken glass ended up reaching some of the children in the backseat,” she said.
Guerrero was also “forcibly” held by police, according to the complaint, in front of her children. The family was given no information about why Flores Martinez was arrested or where he was being taken. He was ultimately deported to Mexico.
“My family has been torn apart,” said Guerrero, a U.S. citizen, told GBH News in an interview on Friday. “They obviously don’t care.” She is currently pregnant and anxious about the future without her husband.
“I feel like he hasn’t been part [of the pregnancy],” she said. “And it’s been hard in all the ways, it’s emotional, physical. For me and this situation, I feel like it’s tough, and having to deal with the kids on my own.”
Her eldest child has been in therapy because of the incident, she said, and getting therapy for her daughter, who has special needs, has been difficult. The youngest, who is 4, is confused about why his father can’t return to Boston, she said.
