Mother Files Lawsuit Against Noem’s ICE After Agents Shatter Car Window During Arrest
Kenia Guerrero was en route to church on Mother’s Day, accompanied by her husband and their three young children, when unmarked vehicles suddenly surrounded them in a Boston suburb.
Video footage recorded by bystanders shows masked agents smashing the windows of their car, forcibly dragging Daniel Flores Martinez from the passenger seat, and slamming him onto the pavement as his family screamed in horror.
This alarming incident has sparked a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with allegations that agents employed unlawful “smash and grab” tactics targeting immigrants and their families, including Guerrero, a U.S. citizen.
“We were preparing to celebrate Mother’s Day. By afternoon, my children were crying, asking why masked men broke into our car and took their father away,” Guerrero stated in a release shared shortly before the dismissal of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem by President Trump.
“I told them I didn’t know,” she continued. “No mother should ever have to say that. This wasn't justice. This was violence. And my children will never forget what they saw.”
On May 11, Flores Martinez and their 3-year-old noticed two unmarked vehicles in their neighborhood. The family, which includes children aged 3, 12, and 14, along with their grandmother, left for church at 11:30 a.m., all of whom are U.S. citizens.
Just blocks from home, several unmarked cars surrounded them, and approximately five armed agents approached the vehicle from both sides. According to the lawsuit, none of the agents identified themselves or disclosed their agency.
The agents began questioning the family about their identities and ordered Flores Martinez to roll down his window. When he hesitated, they threatened to break the glass while Guerrero pleaded for them to refrain from violence, emphasizing the presence of three children in the vehicle.
Footage captures the moment officers shattered the passenger side window.
Agents then “aggressively yanked” Flores out of the car, forced him to the ground, and handcuffed him, despite his compliance and verbal assurance that he was not resisting.
“Mrs. Guerrero cried out: ‘Why are you doing this with my children here?!’” the lawsuit recounts.
“Aren’t you a mother?” she implored a female officer during the ordeal.
When Guerrero attempted to exit the vehicle to check on her husband, another officer restrained her against the car, forcing her to witness the brutal treatment of Flores Martinez.
The children—one diagnosed with epilepsy, hydrocephalus, and cerebral palsy—were “forced to witness” their father being assaulted, according to legal representatives.
ICE subsequently “disappeared” Flores Martinez into unmarked vehicles, and the family later discovered he had been taken to an ICE detention center.
The family is pursuing claims for intentional infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment, assault, and battery while seeking compensatory damages.
This complaint from Boston-based Lawyers for Civil Rights represents a growing trend of lawsuits alleging unlawful arrests and mistreatment. The arrest of Flores Martinez was part of nearly 1,500 similar incidents reported in Massachusetts that month.
“There is no justification for what happened to the Guerrero family,” stated Mirian Albert, senior attorney at Lawyers for Civil Rights. “This was not enforcement. It was state-sanctioned cruelty unleashed on a family without warning, cause, or conscience. The government must answer for the trauma it inflicts on children.”
The lawsuit asserts that this incident “was not the result of isolated or rogue misconduct” but rather reflects a “pattern and practice sanctioned and ratified by ICE leadership,” indicating that such actions are a central feature of ICE’s enforcement strategy.
A request for comment has been submitted to Homeland Security regarding this incident.
