Andrea Martinez, an immigration lawyer, claims that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer broke her foot early Tuesday morning in Kansas City, Missouri, as she was trying to unite a pregnant woman with her child.
According to a report from The Daily Beast, Andrea Martinez was trying to reunite Kenia Bautista-Mayorga, 23, who is six months pregnant, with her three-year-old son before she was deported to Honduras. The pair had been separated by ICE for weeks as Bautista-Mayorga sat in jail.
The officer involved in the incident was identified as Kansas City ICE ERO deportation officer Everett Chase.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5PVR-tWxfE
via The Daily Beast:
A few dozen activists accompanied Martinez and her law partner, Megan Galicia, to protest the deportations. Initially, Martinez said she thought the boy would be reunited with his mother in the parking lot of the ICE office. Instead, ICE officials decided to reunite them inside the building, away from protesters and cameras, according to Martinez.
Martinez said that is when she and Galicia tried to follow their 3-year-old client into the room in the building where he would be reunited with his mother. An ICE officer blocked them from going inside, she said.
“He slammed the door on us,” Martinez said. “The ICE officer pushed us out and didn’t let us follow our three-year-old client into the lobby, and then pushed me to the ground. I was wearing high heels, so that’s when my foot was fractured and my leg got all bloody. And then my pants ripped. But then he called me back in and detained me for another forty minutes or an hour.”
An ICE released an official statement regarding the incident:
“Early in the morning of June 26 an incident occurred at the Kansas City ICE office while ICE ERO officers were attempting to reunite a mother with a family member. We take any allegations against ICE personnel very seriously and are looking into the matter. Until a review of the documentary evidence is completed, ICE can issue no further public comment on the matter.”
On Tuesday, June 26, Bautista-Mayorga was taken by ICE to be placed on a plane and sent back to Honduras. Martinez said ICE refused to provide flight information so family members there don’t know when or where to meet them.
