City leaders and community members in Worcester, Massachusetts, are calling for answers after a chaotic scene involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and local police.
ICE detained a woman on Eureka Street Thursday as Worcester police arrested her 16-year-old daughter — pinning her face against the ground — and another woman.
Stream NBC10 Boston news for free, 24/7, wherever you are.
WATCH HEREA day later, dozens packed into a community room as city councilors raised questions about what unfolded.
Get updates on what's happening in Boston to your inbox with our News Headlines newsletter.
SIGN UP "The message for ICE is 'Get out of our city,'" said Worcester City Councilor Etel Haxjiaj, who represents District 5.
A rally also took place outside Worcester City Hall Friday.
"On one hand, I want to say I can't believe this happened," said Crow Zubrick, who attended the rally. "But we're seeing this happen over and over again."
Augusta Clara, the 21-year-old sister of the arrested teenager, told Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra in Spanish Friday that she was "very traumatized by everything that happened yesterday."
She added that the father of her newborn daughter was also arrested by ICE the day before the agency detained her mother and police arrested her sister.
Clara said her two sisters — the 16-year-old who was arrested and a 13-year-old — are now in the care of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families.
The siblings' mother legally applied for asylum, does not have a criminal record and has a hearing scheduled for this summer, according to her attorney.
Ashley Spring, 38, was also arrested Thursday. Worcester police said she allegedly poured an unknown liquid on them as they were trying to detain someone. She was charged with assault and battery on a police officer, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, disorderly conduct and interfering with a police officer.
"We'll see what comes within the next couple of months, and hopefully, you know, both me and Worcester police will be better off because of the results of it," Spring said after her initial court appearance on Friday.
"What happened yesterday is concerning," said Carlton Williams, an attorney representing Spring. "Just walking down the street, and living in your home, and driving in your car, people want to be safe, people want to feel like they can trust the government and the government supports us, not that they are hunting people."
"What happened yesterday are the behavior of heroes. In 20 years, in 50 years, people will look back at this and say, 'Those were the people who protected us, those were the people who made it so we still have a thing that we call democracy in this country,'" Williams added.
Worcester police said the department only responded to after receiving a call about a federal agent being surrounded, adding officers were there just to keep the peace and ensure no one was injured.
"When officers arrived on scene, they observed a chaotic scene with several federal agents from various agencies attempting to take a female into custody," the department said in a news release. "Federal agents had placed this female under arrest and were attempting to leave in a vehicle. The crowd was unruly, and several people were putting their hands on federal agents and Worcester officers in an attempt to keep the vehicle and the arrestee from leaving. Worcester officers attempted to deescalate the situation and keep everyone safe."
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said she needs to learn more about what happened.
"Massachusetts, we are not a sanctuary state, and as a former AG and prosecutor, I couldn't be more clear about that. We are not a sanctuary state," Healey said. "We don't want people who've done nothing wrong to be caught up in this, and that is some of what we see around the country in terms of people getting picked up and detained without cause."
"There's no place — no place — to attack police. I want to be real clear with the public about that," Healey added. "No place to attack police and law enforcement that are just trying to do their job, and they were doing that separate, entirely, from what the ICE agents were doing yesterday, but again, we need to learn more."
