A five-year-old girl was held outside of her home by ICE agents who hoped to force her father to turn himself in for arrest.
The family has an active asylum claim and has two children born in the U.S. The incident occurred in the community of Leominster, around 50 miles west of Boston.
In the video obtained by Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra, ICE agents can be seen surrounding the young girl.
Her family’s voices can be heard in the background, with her mother pleading for the government agents to “give me my daughter back.”
The recording, translated by NBC Boston, quoted the mother as saying, “They took my daughter, she’s five years old. She has autism spectrum.”
In the footage, Edward Hip, a Guatemalan man who has lived in America for 22 years, is apparently told to show his ID to the officers in return for the girl.
-copy.jpeg)
The family was waiting inside the home, while the girl was held outside. In response to the officers’ demands, they can be heard offering to show ID through the door.
However, the clip shows the ICE agents pointing to the ground next to them and saying, “You can do it right here.”
Eventually, local cops arrived and returned the girl to her family after the officers allegedly threatened to “enter the house.”
Two days after the video was taken, Hip was arrested when federal agents returned to the home. He was taken into custody on his wife’s birthday, the family says. He now remains in custody at a site in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Now, Lizeth Román, a family friend, has called for an investigation into the incident.
“They had them cornered. We don’t know if they’re still there right now.
“They came out from behind the house, got in through there, and tried to get into our window,” she told Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra.
The Independent has contacted ICE for comment.
Trump’s second term in office has seen a crackdown on immigration into the United States. More than one million migrants disappeared from the country’s workforce in light of the president’s mass deportation policies.
The farming, fishing, construction, and service industries have been particularly hit by the crackdown, with 45 percent of immigrants in America working in those sectors.
The crackdown has caused 92 percent of construction companies to face project delays due to a workforce shortage, according to the Associated General Contractors of America.
Meanwhile, the president has pushed ahead with efforts to impose a $100,000 fee on H-1B visa applicants.
The 3-year specialist visa enables highly skilled immigrants, many of whom are from India or China, to secure prestigious tech jobs.
Approximately 60 percent of H-1B visas are awarded to jobs at companies such as Palantir, Oracle, and Tesla.
Amid the H-1 B crackdown, Trump has signed an executive order to create a controversial Gold Card, with which foreign-born nationals can pay $1 million to obtain U.S. residency.
