A Kansas City immigration lawyer says she suffered a fractured foot after an ICE officer pushed her to the ground while she was accompanying her 3-year-old client into an ICE building, Scripps station KSHB in Kansas City reports.
KSHB reports that Andrea Martinez was accompanying 3-year-old Noah Bautista-Mayorga to the building early Tuesday morning when a scuffle ensued. Video shared widely on Facebook shows Martinez falling to the ground.
Martinez claimed ICE agents attempted to block her from entering the building.
Martinez was accompanying Noah, as he was set to meet with his mother, Kenia Bautista-Mayorga. The family entered the country illegally in February 2016 in order to flee an abusive marriage and was scheduled to be deported to Honduras on Tuesday.
Noah was also accompanied by Luis Alfredo Diaz Inestroza, who had been looking after him while his mother had been detained. Inestroza, who also entered the country illegally, is Bautista-Mayorga's partner and the mother of her unborn child.
According to the New York Times, Martinez claims that ICE agents — who she says had agreed to allow Inestroza to meet Bautista-Mayorga in the parking lot for a goodbye — then grabbed Inestroza and "forced him into the Enforcement and Removal Operations office."
Inestroza was later told he has two months to leave the country.
ICE issued the following statement on Tuesday according to KSHB:
“Early this morning an incident occurred at the Kansas City ICE office while ICE (Enforcement and Removal Operations) 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.”
Alex Hider is a writer for the E.W. Scripps National Desk. Follow him on Twitter @alexhider.
