Video exhibits ICE brokers try and detain father in Windfall

Within the video, the person’s kids cling onto him and cry, and an ICE agent later threatens to pepper spray a bystander.

ICE brokers in Rhode Island tried to arrest a father as he holds each his kids in his arms. Globe Employees

A number of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers tried to arrest a person with two younger kids clinging onto him in Windfall, as seen in a video taken by a bystander.

Within the video, obtained by The Boston Globe, the brokers encompass the person, who’s holding a toddler in every arm. All through the video, the youngsters are heard crying.

The ICE brokers repeatedly bark on the bystander recording the interplay, ultimately threatening to pepper spray the bystander, the video exhibits.

The person, who was interviewed by the Globe, stated he was driving to drop off his kids at a babysitter earlier than going to work in building. The person, who glided by his center title “Sebastian” within the Globe interview, stated he observed automobiles following him.

Sebastian informed the Globe he struck a curb whereas attempting to get away from the automobiles, and he bought out of his automobile to stroll his kids again dwelling. Sebastian’s automobile may be seen within the video with injury to the entrance on the driving force’s aspect and a tire turned sideways on the curb.

Two ICE brokers then approached and stopped Sebastian, in response to the Globe’s interview.

“I didn’t wish to allow them to go,” Sebastian informed the Globe in Spanish.

Sebastian, who’s from Guatemala and crossed the border round three years in the past, informed the Globe he’s undocumented however is actively working to alter his standing.

ICE brokers later walked him nearer to his dwelling and informed him to report back to ICE on Wednesday. If he didn’t, they threatened to arrest his complete household, he informed the Globe.

Within the video, the ICE brokers pat down Sebastian because the bystander yells on the brokers for “violating his rights.” The brokers later take a photograph of Sebastian on their telephones. At one level, the bystander asks if the brokers have a warrant, and so they reply that they do, in response to the video.

In the direction of the top of the video, an ICE agent growls on the bystander to again up, whereas grabbing and holding his pepper spray.

Whereas ICE didn’t instantly reply to Boston.com’s request for touch upon this particular scenario, a spokesperson beforehand wrote the company “prioritizes the removing of people who pose a menace to public security.”

“ICE is charged with imposing the U.S. immigration legal guidelines as handed by Congress and is dedicated to upholding the legislation and defending public security,” the spokesperson wrote to Boston.com.

Based on the Globe, Sebastian doesn’t have a prison report in Rhode Island.

Windfall’s guardrails towards ICE

The interplay with ICE occurred in Windfall, a metropolis which has gone to nice lengths to put guardrails towards the immigration enforcement company over the previous couple of years.

Mayor Brett Smiley signed an government order in September 2025 affirming that Windfall cops are to not act as immigration officers, ask about an individual’s immigration standing, or proactively work with ICE brokers.

The Windfall Metropolis Council then handed a collection of amendments to its Group-Police Relations Act in November 2025. These amendments banned Windfall police from volunteering to assist immigration enforcement, collaborating with immigration enforcement with no warrant, and extra.

The actions adopted an incident in July 2025 wherein Windfall police responded to a car collision involving an ICE agent. Physique-worn digital camera footage confirmed the police serving to ICE in its immigration enforcement search, together with a police officer explicitly stating, “We’ll aid you” to ICE brokers. The ACLU wrote a letter demanding all body-worn digital camera footage from the incident.

The Windfall Exterior Evaluate Board discovered the officers violated a metropolis ordinance, in response to a September memo.

Mayor Brett Smiley signed two government orders over the 12 months to additional distance the town from ICE.

A January government order prohibited ICE from utilizing any metropolis property as a staging space, working base, or processing location. A more moderen July government order established procedures for the way metropolis officers ought to reply to federal officers’ election-related questions and reaffirmed protections towards ICE voter intimidation.

The town’s protections towards ICE lengthen past the realm of politicians, with dozens of companies within the metropolis becoming a member of collectively in August 2025 to create a community of “immigration protection zones,” the place federal brokers are prohibited from getting into with no judicial warrant.

ICE exercise within the space

The incident in Windfall follows a three-day stretch in late September when ICE detained greater than 80 individuals simply throughout the border in Southeastern Massachusetts.

Advocates, attorneys, and officers shared tales of ICE brokers detaining a father whose 8-year-old son waited in school to be picked up; a mum or dad with a one-month-old baby at dwelling; staff heading to the fish processing crops on the New Bedford Harbor; and others doing nothing greater than driving or going to the grocery retailer.

Windfall has seen quite a lot of high-profile ICE arrests through the second Trump administration, together with the wrongful arrest of a highschool intern on the Rhode Island Superior Court docket in November 2025. Earlier in 2025, protestors gathered round a Windfall hospital after reviews of brokers inside.