Us Citizen Mom-of-three Sues Kristi Noem’s Ice After Agents Smashed Her Car Window In Viral Mother’s Day Arrest

Kenia Guerrero was driving to religion connected Mother’s Day pinch her hubby and their 3 young children erstwhile masked agents successful unmarked cars surrounded them connected nan streets of a Boston suburb.

In footage captured connected bystander video, nan officers smashed her car windows and dragged Daniel Flores Martinez from nan rider spot and slammed him connected nan crushed while his woman and children screamed successful terror.

The incident, which unfolded wrong minutes, is now astatine nan halfway of a national lawsuit against Donald Trump’s management and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, who are accused of illegally deploying “smash and grab” strategies to target immigrants and their families, including Guerrero, who is simply a U.S. citizen.

“We were getting fresh to observe Mother’s Day. By afternoon, my children were crying, asking why masked men collapsed into our car and took their begetter away,” Guerrero said successful a connection shared pinch The Independent Thursday, conscionable hours earlier DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was fired by President Donald Trump.

“I told them I didn’t know,” she said. “No mother should ever person to opportunity that. This wasn't justice. This was violence. And my children will ne'er hide what they saw.”

On May 11, Flores Martinez and his 3-year-old noticed 2 unmarked cars successful their neighborhood, according to nan lawsuit.

The family — including children ages 3, 12 and 14 and their grandma — headed to religion astatine 11:30 a.m. The children are each U.S. citizens.

Several unmarked cars surrounded them a fewer blocks from their home, and astir 5 armed, plain-clothes agents approached nan conveyance connected some sides, according to video of nan scene. None of nan agents identified themselves aliases told nan family what agency they worked for, according to nan lawsuit.

Agents past began asking nan family astir their identities and signaled for Flores Martinez, who was sitting successful nan rider seat, to rotation down his window. Agents past threatened to break nan solid while Guerrero pleaded pinch nan agents against utilizing violence, telling them that 3 children were successful nan vehicle, according to nan lawsuit.

Video shows officers breaking nan rider broadside window.

Agents past “aggressively yanked” Flores retired of nan car, brought him to nan ground, and put him successful handcuffs, according to nan lawsuit. Flores did not defy and told nan agents that he was not resisting, lawyers said.

“Mrs. Guerrero cried out: ‘Why are you doing this pinch my children here?!’” nan suit states.

“Aren’t you a mother?” she told a female officer, according to nan lawsuit.

When Guerrero tried to get retired of nan car to spot what was happening to Flores Martinez, she was “restrained against her vehicle” by different serviceman and “was forced to witnesser nan different ICE officers brutalize her husband,” according to nan lawsuit.

The children — 1 of whom is diagnosed pinch epilepsy, hydrocephalus and cerebral palsy — were “forced to witness” their begetter being attacked, lawyers wrote.

ICE “disappeared” Florez Martinez into unmarked cars, and nan family only learned later that he was moved to an ICE detention center, according to nan lawsuit.

The family alleges intentional infliction of affectional distress arsenic good arsenic mendacious imprisonment, battle and artillery and seeks compensatory damages.

The title from Boston-based Lawyers for Civil Rights connected behalf of Guerrero and her family is among a activity of lawsuits alleging unlawful arrests and abuse. The apprehension of Flores Martinez was among astir 1,500 successful Massachusetts that month.

“There is nary justification for what happened to nan Guerrero family,” said Mirian Albert, elder lawyer astatine Lawyers for Civil Rights. “This was not enforcement. It was state-sanctioned cruelty, unleashed connected a family without warning, without cause, and without conscience. The authorities must reply for nan trauma it inflicts connected children.”

The incident “was not nan consequence of isolated aliases rogue misconduct” but reflects a “pattern and believe sanctioned and ratified by ICE leadership,” according to nan lawsuit. “This is simply a cardinal characteristic of ICE’s enforcement regime.”

The Independent has requested remark from Homeland Security.