Massachusetts family files complaint against ICE officers after 'aggressive' apprehension on Mother's Day

Grace Zokovitch, Boston Herald on Jun 5, 2025

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BOSTON — Lawyers for Civil Rights filed a complaint against ICE on Thursday on behalf a Chelsea family after officers smashed through their car window on their way to church to arrest the father on Mother’s Day.

“My children watched as their father was physically attacked, treated like an animal, and ripped away from us,” said Kenia Guerrero, the wife of Daniel Flores-Martinez, who has been detained for nearly a month. “They have so many questions, but I don’t have the answers. Why would the government tear our family apart like this? No mother should have to explain this kind of cruelty to her children.”

The complaint was filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, seeking “damages for brutality, raising claims of excessive force, wrongful arrest, assault, and the infliction of lasting trauma, especially on the family’s three U.S. citizen children,” Lawyers for Civil Rights stated.

The filing is a “required precursor” to a federal tort claims lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Boston.

On May 11, Mother’s Day, Daniel Flores-Martinez and his son were walking their dog before church when the father initially noticed an “unmarked car with heavily tinted window idling on the family’s street,” the complaint states.

The family followed a usual Sunday routine and got in the car to go to church around 11:20 a.m., according to the complaint. They were quickly pulled over, and then blocked in by multiple unmarked vehicles. Five plainclothes officers approached, with one wearing a mask and several in vests stating “Police.”

The agents took Guerrero’s license but focused on Flores-Martinez, the complaint states, who remained silent “in accordance with his constitutional rights” but rolled down his window enough to speak or exchange documents when ordered.

In an incident captured on video, an agent then broke through the front passenger window, unlocked the door, and pulled Flores-Martinez out face down onto the sidewalk, as he told the agents he was “not resisting” and the children can be heard screaming.

“The family was left with no information about why Mr. Flores-Martinez was arrested or where he was being taken,” LCR stated. “It was only later that Mrs. Guerrero confirmed with certainty that the officers were from ICE and that Mr. Flores-Martinez had been taken to immigration detention.”

Flores-Martinez has remained confined for over 20 days, and the family’s request for a stay of removal was recently denied.

The lawyers stated the incident represents an “alarming pattern of aggressive ICE operations in Massachusetts, where federal agents increasingly use force without following well-established state and federal law, including their own standards of enforcement.”

The officers did not produce warrants or identify themselves before the forceful seizure, LCR stated, saying the incident violated “basic constitutional protections and civil rights.”

ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the complaint filing Thursday.

“Law enforcement officials cannot open the car door without justification,” said LCR Executive Director Iván Espinoza-Madrigal. “A car’s interior as a whole is subject to Fourth Amendment protection from unreasonable intrusions. No family should experience this level of fear, intimidation, and violence, especially not in front of young children on Mother’s Day and the Sabbath.”

LCR noted the father was the family’s primary income earner, and they have been left struggling with physical, emotional and financial care, particularly for one child with “multiple severe and complex medical conditions.”

Espinoza-Madrigal said the group is sharing the complaint to help other lawyers support families in these situations.

“We must protect basic human dignity,” said Espinoza-Madrigal. “Immigration enforcement cannot be a blank check for brutality.”

The complaint alleges warrantless arrest, failure to identify, illegal use of force, false imprisonment, assault, battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, along with other claims.

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