In East Boston, wives of men arrested by ICE tell their stories

While federal immigration officials touted the nearly 1,500 arrests they made in Massachusetts during May, three women whose husbands had been taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement sat in front of a crowded room in an East Boston community center and described — at times through tears — what the experience has been like for their families.

The event was part of a community roundtable event convened by Rep. Ayanna Pressley to amplify the faces and stories behind the government's arrest statistics.

"ICE raids have robbed us of family members and our collective sense of security and belonging," Pressley said.  "We are here to say, 'hands off our neighbors. Stop tearing families apart.' "

The first community member to speak was Kenia Guerrero of Chelsea. She said her husband, Daniel Flores Martinez, was arrested on Mother's Day as the couple and their three children were on the way to church in Revere

"Just a few blocks from our home, I noticed flashing lights behind us," she said. "I was driving, so I pulled over. Suddenly, several unmarked cars surrounded us; about five officers approached both the driver and passenger sides."

The agents smashed the passenger side window, sending fragments of glass into the backseat where her children — ages 14, 12 and 3 — sat, Guerrero said.

" The officers reached inside the car through the window they shattered, they unlocked the door, they grabbed my husband and slammed his face on the sidewalk," she said. "Everything happened so fast."

Guerrero said the officers never identified themselves or presented a warrant. She also said her husband, who is from Mexico, didn't resist.

"We are devastated. No one should live through this," she said. "He needs to come home."

Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of Lawyers for Civil Rights, which is representing the family, blasted the way ICE agents handled the arrest.

"The law clearly states that law enforcement officials cannot open the car door without justification," he said. "What happened to Mrs. Guerrero and her family ... is nothing short of a violation of their well-established constitutional rights under federal law and state law."

A spokesman for ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mercedes Pineda of East Boston said her family is struggling after her husband was arrested at work and detained for two days at an ICE facility in Burlington.

" We are deeply traumatized," Pineda said through an interpreter. "My husband and I can't sleep. I'm afraid to go out. I'm afraid to take my daughter to school. Our 12-year-old daughter who was born in this country has anxiety attacks."

Pineda said her husband, who is from El Salvador, had temporary protected status, which gave him the right to live and work here. But the ICE agents who detained him, she said, told him that "only people born here have rights."

While the Trump administration has revoked temporary status for people from a number of countries, it extended the status for El Salvador in January.

In a third case discussed at the meeting Monday, a woman from Randolph said the immigration officials who arrested her husband wrongly accused him of theft.

Caitlyn Burgess, a senior attorney with MacMurray and Associates who was in attendance, said her office has heard a lot of cases like this.

"We are seeing a fabrication of allegations made by ICE," she said. "We [are seeing] an erosion of due process."

State Sen. Lydia Edwards, whose district includes East Boston, said she worries about how the "narrative" around immigration is changing in this country.

"There's a criminalization of immigration in and of itself," she said. The Trump administration “wants to deport en masse. So in order to do that, they need to detain en masse. In order to do that, they need to criminalize en masse. And in order to do that, they create more crimes."

At a press conference in Boston on Monday, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said the agency arrested 1,461 immigrants in the state during May, including 790 officials said involved “significant criminality.”

The officials who spoke said they consider all people in the country without legal status criminals.

Gov. Maura Healey and other state officials havedemanded greater accountability from ICE during arrests, some of which have turned chaotic. In most cases, the agency doesn't release details of why people are being arrested or where they’re being taken.

" The federal government's desperation to fill jails with immigrants has torn families apart and inflicted deep emotional trauma," Pressley said. "This has nothing to do with public safety and everything to do with power and control and intimidation."

Pressley didn't outline any specific plans to hold ICE accountable to try to reduce the number of arrests. She implored Massachusetts residents — even those who feel they have no ties to an immigrant community — to speak out.

The Trump administration, she said, is undertaking a "shock and awe" strategy meant to "overwhelm" people.

"They want to sow fear, chaos and distrust in our government so that we feel alone and defeated," she said. "But we are not alone, and we are certainly not giving up the fight."