Attorneys for Civil Rights filed a grievance towards ICE on Thursday on behalf a Chelsea household after officers smashed by their automotive window on their strategy to church to arrest the daddy on Mom’s Day.
“My children watched as their father was physically attacked, treated like an animal, and ripped away from us,” stated Kenia Guerrero, the spouse of Daniel Flores-Martinez, who has been detained for almost a month. “They have so many questions, but I don’t have the answers. Why would the government tear our family apart like this? No mother should have to explain this kind of cruelty to her children.”
The grievance was filed below the Federal Tort Claims Act with the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in search of “damages for brutality, raising claims of excessive force, wrongful arrest, assault, and the infliction of lasting trauma, especially on the family’s three U.S. citizen children,” Attorneys for Civil Rights said.
The submitting is a “required precursor” to a federal tort claims lawsuit within the U.S. District Court docket in Boston.
On Might 11, Mom’s Day, Daniel Flores-Martinez and his son have been strolling their canine earlier than church when the daddy initially seen an “unmarked car with heavily tinted window idling on the family’s street,” the grievance states.
The household adopted a normal Sunday routine and bought within the automotive to go to church round 11:20 a.m., in keeping with the grievance. They have been rapidly pulled over, after which blocked in by a number of unmarked autos. 5 plainclothes officers approached, with one sporting a masks and a number of other in vests stating “Police.”
The brokers took Guerrero’s license however centered on Flores-Martinez, the grievance states, who remained silent “in accordance with his constitutional rights” however rolled down his window sufficient to talk or change paperwork when ordered.
In an incident captured on video, an agent then broke by the entrance passenger window, unlocked the door, and pulled Flores-Martinez out face down onto the sidewalk, as he informed the brokers he was “not resisting” and the kids will be heard screaming.
“The family was left with no information about why Mr. Flores-Martinez was arrested or where he was being taken,” LCR said. “It was only later that Mrs. Guerrero confirmed with certainty that the officers were from ICE and that Mr. Flores-Martinez had been taken to immigration detention.”
Flores-Martinez has remained confined for over 20 days, and the household’s request for a keep of elimination was just lately denied.
The attorneys said the incident represents an “alarming pattern of aggressive ICE operations in Massachusetts, where federal agents increasingly use force without following well-established state and federal law, including their own standards of enforcement.”
The officers didn’t produce warrants or establish themselves earlier than the forceful seizure, LCR said, saying the incident violated “basic constitutional protections and civil rights.”
ICE didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the grievance submitting Thursday.
“Law enforcement officials cannot open the car door without justification,” stated LCR Government Director Iván Espinoza-Madrigal. “A car’s interior as a whole is subject to Fourth Amendment protection from unreasonable intrusions. No family should experience this level of fear, intimidation, and violence, especially not in front of young children on Mother’s Day and the Sabbath.”
LCR famous the daddy was the household’s main revenue earner, they usually have been left fighting bodily, emotional and monetary care, significantly for one baby with “multiple severe and complex medical conditions.”
Espinoza-Madrigal stated the group is sharing the grievance to assist different attorneys help households in these conditions.
“We must protect basic human dignity,” stated Espinoza-Madrigal. “Immigration enforcement cannot be a blank check for brutality.”
The grievance alleges warrantless arrest, failure to establish, unlawful use of drive, false imprisonment, assault, battery, and intentional infliction of emotional misery, together with different claims.