A video obtained by Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra shows Immigration and Customs Enforcement with a 5-year-old girl, whose mother says she is autistic, while agents attempted to arrest her father near their Massachusetts home.
The video, provided to Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra by the girl’s mother, depicts the girl sitting beside an SUV with three agents nearby outside of her home in Leominster, Massachusetts, last Tuesday. Her father at the time was inside.
The girl’s mother told Telemundo — which is owned and operated by NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News — that her husband called her while he was driving with their daughter shortly before the incident and told her he thought he was being followed.
Her husband, Edward Hip Mejia, drove home and “managed to run back into the parking lot of my house,” she said, and her daughter as a result was left with the agents.
“They took my daughter, she’s 5-years-old. She has autism spectrum,” the girl’s mother is heard saying to agents in the video. “Give me my daughter back.”
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Mejia “ignored law enforcement emergency lights to pull over and drove back to his house. He fled from the car, gave officers the double middle finger, and darted inside his house. He abandoned his 5-year-old daughter in the car. Officers helped rescue the child and called local police to report the abandonment.”
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Mejia is originally from Guatemala and has lived in the United States for about 25 years, according to his wife, who asked that her name not be published. The pair share two children who were born in the U.S., she said.
The video appears to show authorities outside the home communicating with the father.
“Is that your daughter? Come here so I can see those IDs,” a man who appears to be an immigration agent can be heard saying in the video.
“Hey, I can give it through the door,” Mejia is heard saying in response.
The agent then points to the ground in front of himself and tells Mejia he can give the ID to him “right here.”
NBC Boston reported that local police then arrived at the scene, recovered the child and returned her to her family. She is doing well, her mom told Telemundo.
The Leominster Police Department did not immediately return a request for comment.
Authorities came back to the home two days later and detained Mejia, according to his wife. He is currently being held at an ICE detention center in Plymouth, she said.
“Officers came out behind my house, arrested him, took him away,” she told Telemundo. “We are not criminals.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article mischaracterized the activities of ICE agents in the video. The article has been updated.
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