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The teenage girl was apparently used to bait her father during an “overnight attempt,” Rep. Lori Trahan said.
A lawmaker from Massachusetts is raising the alarm about the detainment of a 14-year-old who she says was apparently used by federal immigration agents “as a hostage to coerce her father into turning himself in for deportation.”
U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan issued a statement about the incident Wednesday afternoon. On Tuesday, the teenage girl from Marlborough with no criminal history was detained by immigration agents, she said. The girl was used to “coerce” her father into turning himself in during an “apparent overnight attempt,” according to Trahan.
“As a mother to 15- and 11-year-old daughters, I am furious. This is not immigration enforcement. It’s the deliberate targeting of a child to inflict maximum pain on her family,” Trahan said.
Trahan did not include any other identifying information about the girl, her family, or what led to the arrest.
Trahan’s office did not immediately return a request for more information. Neither did Marlborough Public Schools.
Spokespeople for the Department of Homeland Security and ICE also did not return requests for comment.
Trahan called for the girl’s immediate release.
“She should be returned home to her family this afternoon and able to go back to school tomorrow,” the congresswoman said.
Trahan drew a line between this alleged incident and the detainment of Liam Ramos. The 5-year-old was detained by federal agents in Minnesota earlier this year. The boy’s mother and others accused ICE of using Ramos as “bait” in order to take other members of his family into custody. Federal officials have denied this.
Images of him being escorted by a federal agent into an ICE vehicle went viral online, prompting widespread outrage. Ramos and his father were eventually released following a judge’s order. That judge sharply criticized the Trump administration for its “ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas.”
Trahan said that there were similarities between the two cases.
“The nation watched in horror as a little boy with a blue bunny hat and Spiderman backpack was taken into custody by federal immigration authorities,” she said. “The ordeal was so heinous that a federal judge ordered his release and called it ‘cruel’ and ‘bereft of human decency.’ But now, federal immigration agents seem to be doing it again, this time here in Massachusetts.”
Ross Cristantiello
Ross Cristantiello, a general assignment news reporter for Boston.com since 2022, covers local politics, crime, the environment, and more.
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