An illegal alien has filed a federal lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over alleged misconduct during her 2025 arrest.
Illegal alien Nancy Martinez alleges in the suit that she was about to take her children to school in June of 2025 when masked ICE agents surrounded her vehicle, removed her and her kids from it, tossed her into an unmarked ICE car, and told her that she would be deported.
The suit alleges that the agents didn’t show a warrant and didn’t try to speak to Martinez in Spanish. She evidently doesn’t speak English. It’s not clear why she expected the ICE agents to speak Spanish to her in America.
“In the back of the ICE car, handcuffed and surrounded by agents, I had my first ever panic attack,” she said Monday via a translator during a Zoom call that was joined by several Democrats, according to the CT Mirror.
“As a mother, I take pride in being a planner, coordinating my work schedule around teachers’ conferences, doctors’ appointments, and sports matches. But nothing, absolutely nothing, could have prepared me for what I saw looking out the window: there were my children clinging to their grandma and calling out to me as I got farther and farther away,” she added.
A Connecticut mother is suing the federal government after masked, armed ICE agents surrounded her vehicle while she was taking her children to school, removed and handcuffed her without displaying a warrant, and abducted her without properly confirming that the children had a… pic.twitter.com/7o38y2e4zw
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) June 21, 2026
According to the suit, her arrest devastated her children, both of whom are U.S. citizens.
“Nine-year-old U.A.M., once a bubbly child, now struggles to sleep through the night,” the suit reads. “At school, he frequently interrupts class with his crying. Once, he sat down outside a classroom, told his teacher that he missed his mom, and stayed on the ground crying for almost twenty minutes. Another time, he went up to a police officer at school, asking why the officer had taken away his mother and pleading to return her to him.”
“Fourteen-year-old M.A.M. struggles to focus on her schoolwork,” the suit continues. “She has had to take on significant responsibilities at home to help raise her younger brother. Shouldering the weight of being a growing teenager and now a caregiver has taken its toll. Following her mother’s abduction, M.A.M. became a shell of herself, uncharacteristically irritable, reticent, and withdrawn.”
The lawsuit specifically seeks redress and damages “for the abusive manner in which the agents abducted Ms. Martinez off the street, the terror and trauma they inflicted on her family, and the reckless disregard the agents demonstrated for her and her children.”
Martinez now lives in Mexico while her children remain in the United States.
“One year and six days ago, I lost everything,” she said during Monday’s Zoom call, according to CT Insider. “I’m here to remind New Haven’s immigrant community that we are not alone.”
During her arrest last year, one of the agents used their hand to mime a plane taking off, signaling to Martinez that she would be deported.
“In that moment, I finally understood that this was ICE and that they were taking me away from my family, my community, and my home,” she said on Monday.
The suit also alleges that after Martinez was arrested, ICE agents left her children with their grandmother without even speaking to her or confirming her identity. In a statement to CT Insider, the Department of Homeland Security denied this.
“Before departing the scene, officers confirmed that Martinez’s mother was home and would be able to look after her children,” a DHS spokesperson said. “ICE does not separate families. Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children, or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates. This is consistent with past administration’s immigration enforcement.”
The spokesperson added that “being in detention is a choice.”
“Parents can take control of their departure with the CBP Home app and reserve the chance to come back the right legal way,” the spokesperson explained. “The United States is offering illegal aliens $2,600 and a free flight to self-deport now. We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S., the right legal way to live the American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.”
