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Fitchburg police defend actions during ICE arrest after man appears to seize while holding child
A top Homeland Security official said emergency medical personnel “found no legitimate medical episode,” despite the chaotic scene filmed by bystanders.
A chaotic scene unfolded in Fitchburg Thursday morning as federal immigration officials detained a woman whose husband appeared to suffer a seizure while holding their young child during the traffic stop.
Witnesses captured video of the incident, during which bystanders could be heard pleading for the man’s safety as Fitchburg police shouted at them to “back up.”
“They’re trying to rip the baby out of her hands,” a witness says off-camera in a clip widely circulated on social media.
Immigration news:
Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, defended the operation as a “targeted” Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest and alleged emergency medical personnel at the scene “found no legitimate medical episode.”
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“ICE called 911 and the illegal alien refused any medical care,” she wrote on social media Friday.
She identified the woman who was arrested as Juliana Milena Ojeda-Montoya, an Ecuadorian national with an alleged criminal past.
McLaughlin described Ojeda-Montoya as a “violent criminal illegal alien” and said she was arrested in August on a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon after allegedly stabbing a coworker with scissores and throwing a trash barrel at her.
Ojeda-Montoya’s child and husband were in the car when ICE officials executed the traffic stop Thursday, and McLaughlin said Ojeda-Montoya “threw the child into the arms of her husband while he purported to have a medical episode, though refused medical help and displayed absolutely no signs of medical concerns just moments later.”
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Meanwhile, she said, “agitators attempted to impede the arrest.”
In a separate statement, the Fitchburg Police Department said ICE agents called asking for help during the Kimball Street traffic stop at about 7:10 a.m. Fitchburg police dispatched an officer and a patrol supervisor, who cleared the scene after determining the agents were not in danger, according to the department.
“The role of the Fitchburg Police Department in this type of situation is to keep the peace,” the statement explained. “Keeping the peace includes making sure both the public as a whole as well as the federal law enforcement agents are safe. The Fitchburg Police Department does not enforce federal immigration laws, nor do we interfere with the lawful actions of other law enforcement agencies.”
ICE agents called local police for help again at about 8:03 a.m., reporting that a crowd had begun to gather and agents were in danger. A Fitchburg police officer, supervisor, and captain dispatched to the scene “confirmed that a crowd was gathering and that the situation was hostile,” police said.
The officers sent for backup to help keep the peace and closed a portion of Kimball Street temporarily, according to the statement.
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ICE agents took Ojeda-Montoya into custody shortly before 9 a.m. and allowed her husband and child to leave the scene, according to Fitchburg police.
The department directed further inquiries to ICE, which did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
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