A child was left alone on the street during a federal immigration operation in Waltham, Massachusetts, earlier this month, according to a city official.
Why It Matters
This Article Includes
President Donald Trump has made significant immigration changes since taking office in January, directing his government to deport millions of unauthorized immigrants under his signature mass deportation policy. The White House has declared that everyone staying in the nation illegally is a criminal, and it has begun to cancel the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants. Critics argue that heightened immigration enforcement measures are sowing fear in migrant communities.
What To Know
Waltham City Councilor Colleen Bradley-MacArthur shared a video with Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra that she claimed showed officers abandoning a toddler on a sidewalk on Fenton Street after arresting the person the child was with.
Bradley-MacArthur told the newspaper that she took the video while volunteering for a neighborhood watch walk with others. Newsweek has contacted Bradley-MacArthur for a comment.
The councilor stated that masked officers had blocked the route with several vehicles, one of which drove directly past her.
Bradley-MacArthur claims that when she asked what agency the cops worked for, one of them said, “You need to stand back and not interfere.”
She stated that she stepped back and maintained her distance while continuing to capture the incident on her phone.
According to the councilor, the officers left without helping the child get home. Bradley-MacArthur was accompanied by other neighborhood watch volunteers who walked the child home, she explained.
“I couldn’t believe that they would just leave someone there,” she said. “The masks, right—that’s so frightening to see masked men blocking the road, with the lights and the sirens.”
Enforcement operations in Waltham have recently increased. On Tuesday, ICE authorities captured two guys who were driving in the same vehicle. Milene Herrera, 16, who was waiting for her bus to school, captured video of ICE agents breaking a window and arresting two males in downtown Waltham after they appeared to ignore the officials’ demands.
Meanwhile, on May 8, ICE officials and local police battled with residents of a Worcester, Massachusetts neighborhood. Footage from the event appeared to show agents pushing protesters as federal immigration agents attempted to detain a woman.
What People Are Saying
Waltham City Councilor Colleen Bradley-MacArthur said: “Honestly, like, it felt like our community—seeing the video today—is under siege.”
What Happens Next
The Trump administration’s strict immigration enforcement policies are expected to continue.
