A confrontation in Massachusetts has turned into a flashpoint over immigration enforcement tactics, with a family accusing ICE agents of using their 5-year-old autistic daughter as leverage against her father. The Trump administration, however, is calling the allegation a “disgusting smear.”
The story first broke after Edward Hip Mejia, a Guatemalan national who has lived in the United States for roughly 25 years, was reportedly followed by agents while driving with his daughter. His wife told reporters that Mejia rushed home in fear, only for agents to grab their little girl outside the family’s home in Leominster.
Video from the incident appears to show officers holding the child nearby as they tried to coax her father into coming out. “Is that your daughter? Come here so I can see those IDs,” one man believed to be an immigration agent can be heard saying. Mejia replies, “Hey, I can give it through the door.” The agent then gestures to the ground and responds, “You can do it right here.”
(Leominster, Massachusetts): ICE agents held a 5-year old autistic girl hostage while threatening her parents
byu/MobileWisdom inICE_Raids
For the family, the scene was terrifying. They say their daughter was left shaken and confused, and is now in therapy to process what happened. Mejia’s wife, who did not want her name published, said the claim that her husband would abandon their child is untrue and deeply insulting.
The Department of Homeland Security quickly fired back. Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin released a blistering statement on social media, writing: “Absolutely not. ICE agents NEVER used a 5-year-old girl as ‘bait’—what a disgusting smear. The criminal illegal alien target — with previous arrests for domestic abuse and strangulation, among other charges — ABANDONED his own child in a car.”
She went on to accuse Mejia of ignoring flashing emergency lights, fleeing into his home, and even flipping officers off as he ran. “Officers helped rescue the child and called local police to report the abandonment,” McLaughlin said, adding that media “smears” like this contribute to a “1000% increase in assaults against our brave law enforcement.”
The family disputes much of McLaughlin’s account, particularly the description of Mejia’s past. They maintain that the child was never abandoned, but instead caught in the middle of an aggressive enforcement operation.
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey also weighed in, describing the video as “horrifying” and saying the tactics shown should not be tolerated. She argued that actions like these erode trust in law enforcement and make immigrant families feel unsafe in their own communities.
The incident has sparked outrage online and drawn attention from immigrant rights advocates, who argue that regardless of the official version of events, involving a child in such a high-stakes situation is unacceptable. Supporters of ICE, meanwhile, say agents were simply doing their jobs in a difficult environment where suspects often resist.
For now, two competing narratives remain. On one side, a family says federal agents traumatized their daughter to pressure her father. On the other hand, the administration insists Mejia alone put his child in danger. What’s clear is that the five-year-old girl at the center of the dispute is left with emotional scars, and a debate over immigration enforcement tactics has been reignited.