A Massachusetts mother says her children were left traumatized after masked immigration agents smashed the window of her car and dragged her husband away while the family was driving to church on Mother’s Day.
The incident, captured on bystander video, is now at the center of a federal lawsuit accusing Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers of using violent “smash and grab” tactics against a family that included several U.S. citizens.
Kenia Guerrero says she was driving through a Boston suburb on May 11 with her husband, Daniel Flores Martinez, and their three children when several unmarked vehicles suddenly surrounded their car.
The family had been heading to church to celebrate Mother’s Day.
According to the lawsuit filed by Lawyers for Civil Rights in Boston, multiple armed plainclothes agents approached the vehicle from both sides.
The agents allegedly did not identify themselves or explain what agency they worked for.
Instead, they began questioning the family about their identities and ordered Flores Martinez — who was sitting in the passenger seat — to roll down his window.
When he did not immediately comply, the agents allegedly threatened to break the glass.
Guerrero pleaded with them not to use force, telling them there were children in the car.
Moments later, video shows agents smashing the passenger-side window.
According to the lawsuit, officers then “aggressively yanked” Flores Martinez from the car, threw him to the ground and placed him in handcuffs.
Lawyers for the family say Flores Martinez did not resist and repeatedly told officers that he was cooperating.
Guerrero, meanwhile, was forced to watch the arrest unfold in front of her children.
“Why are you doing this with my children here?” she cried out, according to the lawsuit.
At one point, Guerrero addressed a female officer directly.
“Aren’t you a mother?” she asked.
When Guerrero tried to get out of the vehicle to see what was happening to her husband, the lawsuit claims another officer restrained her against the car.
The couple’s three children — ages 3, 12 and 14 — were in the vehicle during the incident.
Lawyers say the children were forced to watch as their father was pulled from the car and taken away.
One of the children reportedly suffers from epilepsy, hydrocephalus and cerebral palsy.
After the arrest, Flores Martinez was taken away in unmarked vehicles.
According to the lawsuit, the family had no idea where he was taken until they later learned he had been transferred to an ICE detention facility.
Guerrero says the incident left her children terrified.
“We were getting ready to celebrate Mother’s Day,” she said in a statement.
“By afternoon, my children were crying, asking why masked men broke into our car and took their father away.”
“I told them I didn’t know,” she said. “No mother should ever have to say that.”
The lawsuit accuses ICE officers of false imprisonment, assault and battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Attorneys also argue that Guerrero — who is a U.S. citizen — and her children were unlawfully subjected to violence during the arrest.
Lawyers for Civil Rights say the incident is not an isolated case.
The lawsuit claims the arrest reflects a broader enforcement strategy involving aggressive tactics carried out by ICE agents in Massachusetts.
Nearly 1,500 immigration arrests were made in the state during the same month as the incident, according to the complaint.
Mirian Albert, a senior attorney with the organization, said the arrest crossed a line.
“There is no justification for what happened to the Guerrero family,” she said.
“This was not enforcement. It was state-sanctioned cruelty.”





