Video captures 13-year-old boy being detained by ICE in Eden Prairie
Thursday morning, Jose Gomez left his Eden Prairie, Minnesota, apartment with his 13-year-old son, Jose. They went out to complete a task familiar to most Minnesotans: moving the car after a snowstorm.
After days of lying low, this task brought Gomez face-to-face with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, his family tells WCCO. They believe he was randomly targeted in an incident where ICE also restrained his teenage son, who later said he had an abnormal heartbeat thanks to the ordeal.
Jose sat down with WCCO alongside his mother, Karina. A family friend, Marion Vazquez, was there to help tell their story in English.
"She [Karina] thinks it's unfair that they treated her son in that manner, even put him in handcuffs, when he wasn't a threat," Vasquez said.
Jose said that he was in the car with his father when an unmarked SUV pulled up alongside them. When the police lights came on, he said that his dad told him to run as a second SUV arrived. Jose said that he was tackled, restrained and put into one of the cars operated by ICE. He said he was questioned about his legal status, but his dad argued that he was only a minor and couldn't respond.
Both Jose and Gomez are undocumented, originally from Mexico. But Karina said that to her knowledge, ICE did not have a warrant for Gomez's arrest. She believes he was instead profiled by ICE randomly patrolling the area; she was on the phone with Gomez at the time of the detainment, and she said she overheard ICE agents asking him for paperwork and citizenship.
Karina told the story through tears, holding their 20-day-old baby girl, the sole American citizen in the family. She said that Gomez first arrived in the United States about three years ago. She said that she and the kids joined last year, beginning the asylum-seeking process through the CBP One app established under the Biden administration. Karina said that back home in Mexico, criminals threatened her family with violence to extort money from them.
"She was even robbed at gunpoint at one point," Vasquez said. "They were also just trying to get money off her."
With Gomez still in ICE custody, 13-year-old Jose said that ICE was willing to drop him off at his aunt's house around the corner.
The family provided a video that they say shows the moments right after, with masked agents conferring with one another at the foot of the driveway.
Jose said that he then suffered from an abnormal heartbeat; he has an existing heart condition, and the stress from ICE detaining him and his father led him to need medical attention. The family showed WCCO documents indicating he received care at St. Francis Regional Medical Center. The documents list "victim of assault and battery, chest wall pain," and abrasions of both wrists under "diagnoses."
Karina said that she doesn't know where her husband was taken, but knows that the family has now lost their sole provider.
WCCO reached out to ICE about this incident and has not heard back.