A US green card holder and her two American children have filed a lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after what they allege was a violent and unlawful detention outside a courthouse in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit, filed by Hilda Ramirez Sanan, claims that on 26 September she and her children were accompanying her brother-in-law to a court hearing in Chelsea when unmarked ICE vehicles surrounded and blocked their car. Without identifying themselves, officers shattered the car windows with a sharp tool, hitting Ramirez Sanan and her brother-in-law with glass shards.
Ramirez Sanan alleges she was forcibly removed from the car, handcuffed, kicked, and smashed face-first onto the ground in front of her terrified children. Her 13-year-old son, who is on the autism spectrum, was unbuckled from his seatbelt and pulled from the vehicle. Officers questioned the distressed child about his legal status and threatened to arrest him if he did not respond.
The detention only ended when local police intervened and asked officers to check Ramirez Sanan's identification. She and her children were later taken to hospital, where she was diagnosed with a concussion, bruising, and radial nerve palsy from being handcuffed. The family is seeking $1m in damages.
Lawyers for Civil Rights, representing the family, condemned the officers' behaviour as illegal and inhumane. Ramirez Sanan said her family is 'broken' and that she hopes to prevent such treatment of other innocent families.
