Thomas Breen photo
Martinez's mother, Guada at home Wednesday: Can still hear her daughter shouting, in Spanish, "Mama, take care of my kids."
Security camera footage of the June 9 ICE raid on Frank St.
Nancy Martinez was all set to take her 13-year-old daughter Monse and her 8‑year-old son to school when an unmarked car sped backwards on Frank Street, blocking Martinez’s car from leaving.
Another car, already parked behind Martinez’s, moved forward to prevent the Hill resident from driving backwards.
A third truck then pulled north on Frank, fully blocking in the Acura — which had Martinez in the driver’s seat, Monse in the front passenger seat, and the younger son in the back.
A man exited one of the cars and started knocking on the driver’s side window. Soon there were four men, wearing ski masks, in the street.
Get out of the car, Monse recalled one of them ordering Martinez. We have a warrant for your arrest.
That scene played out Monday morning soon before 9 a.m. on Frank Street in the Hill, when four Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents apprehended and took into custody Martinez, a native of Mexico and local factory worker who has lived in this country for 15 years. Martinez is married and has two children. Her daughter, Monse, said that both she and her brother were born in the U.S.
This account of what happened Monday morning is based on an interview Wednesday with Monse, the 13-year-old seventh-grader who was in the car at the time of the arrest and witnessed the whole thing. It’s also based on an interview with Monse’s grandmother, who was in the house at the time and came outside to help her grandchildren while her daughter was handcuffed in the middle of the street and then disappeared by ICE agents. And it’s based on a surveillance video of the incident, which the Independent watched and which shows from a high-angle distance the boxing in of Martinez’s car, the four ICE agents who arrested Martinez, and the panic and fear that her kids experienced as they watched their mom taken away.
This marks the first high-profile immigration raid by the feds in New Haven as the Trump administration ramps up such enforcement nationwide, with protests in Los Angeles and other cities leaving the country in tumult. The immigrant rights group Unidad Latina en Accion, among other advocates, will be hosting a press conference and rally downtown on Wednesday at 4.
Monse and her grandmother, Guada, said that Martinez, 37, moved to this country 15 years ago from the area of Mexico City, Mexico, in pursuit of economic opportunity and a better quality of life. She is married to a house painter, and has two kids who were born the U.S. She moved to New Haven in particular to be close to some of her cousins.
Monse said that, soon before 9 a.m., she, her mom, and her younger brother exited their first-floor apartment and walked to their family’s car, parked right outside their home. Monse said her mom was going to take her kids to school before heading to state court for the next hearing in her ongoing criminal court case, which Monse and Guada said stems from a dispute with a disgruntled relative over babysitting that relative’s daughter. Martinez has not yet entered pleas to her two misdemeanor charges.
Monse, who is fluent in English and Spanish, said that she, her mom, and her brother had all gotten in the car and her mom had pressed a button to start the engine when a car pulled back down Frank Street. The car parked behind Martinez then pulled up, and a third truck drove up to block the street.
In total, Monse said, there were four different cars with four different agents. None of the cars were marked. None of the men spoke Spanish, only English. None of the men identified themselves as ICE agents. All were wearing ski masks, obscuring most of their faces.
“He didn’t have a vest on or nothing,” Monse said about the agent who approached her car. “He knocks on the window, and my mom rolls down” the window.
“We have a warrant for your arrest,” Monse recalled the man saying. Later on, she said, one of the men mentioned that this arrest was related to “immigration.” Monse and Guada said it was unclear at the time why exactly Martinez was being arrested.
Monse said she helped her brother get out of the car, and the two walked on to the sidewalk while the ICE agents put her mom in handcuffs in the middle of the street. Her mom yelled, in Spanish, for Monse to grab Martinez’s phone and put it in her pocket, so she could be in touch with the family after her arrest. Monse said that her mom also texted her dad, and the grandmother ultimately called Martinez’s father, who was at work at the time, to explain as much as they could what was happening.
“I held his hand” on the sidewalk, Monse said about her younger brother, as she also cried and asked the agents what was going on and why they were taking her mom. She said her brother has autism and also did not understand what was going on.
“They told me to calm down,” she remembered about what the agents said. She replied that she couldn’t calm down based on what was happening to her mom right in front of her.
“They just left me and my brother there, unsupervised,” Monse continued. Her grandmother then rushed out of the house to embrace the kids and find out what was happening. Guada said she saw her daughter in handcuffs, put in the back of the ICE agents’ car, and then taken away. She said her daughter shouted, “Mama, take care of my kids” as she was taken away. Guada speaks only Spanish, and said she had no idea what the men were saying
“I didn’t know what to say or think,” Monse recalled. She said that she has been able to speak over the phone with her mom each day since her arrest. She said her mom was first taken to Hartford, and, as of Tuesday, was taken to a separate facility in Rhode Island. She said she’s fine but “I don’t think she’s eating,” Monse said through tears.
Guada said she has been visiting her family in New Haven since January, and her visa is set to run out next month. She’s not sure what she’s going to do, as she has no idea when or if her daughter will be released from custody.
In the days since, Monse said her brother has asked her again and again what happened to their mom. He asks if she’s in prison. Monse says no. “I don’t want him to think something bad about my mom.”
Monse said her teacher and whole school has been supportive throughout. Monse hasn’t been to school all week; her brother missed school Monday and Tuesday, but returned on Wednesday for a field day celebration. “I felt bad” and didn’t want him to miss that fun event, Monse said. She singled out for praise her and her brother’s teachers for being so supportive at this traumatic time.
When this reporter asked Monse about what her mom is like, Monse pulled up on her phone a note she had written about her mom and read it aloud. She’s more than just a mom, Monse said. “I’m her best friend. We could tell anything to each other.”
“I’m only 13,” she said through tears, as she talked about the hurt her and her family are experiencing in their mom’s absence. “We just need our mom back.”
The Frank Street block where Monday's ICE raid took place.