According to one witness, ICE came to his home in Brownsville and spared him because he had his young daughter. NBC6’s Laura Rodriguez reports.
A man who says U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers raided his home in Brownsville on Sunday believes he was spared because he was with his young daughter and her mother wasn’t home, he told NBC6.
“It was a question of where I was going to leave my baby if they took me,” the man, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said. “Because I’m with my wife… and she wasn’t here. And they weren’t going to take me because I was with the little girl. Otherwise they would’ve taken me, too.”
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WATCH HERESeveral operations were carried out by federal officials in South Florida on Sunday, leading to the arrest of alleged undocumented immigrants, according to posts by the agencies on the social media network X.
Video posted to social media shows the alleged raid described by the witness in Brownsville. NBC6 has reached out to officials about Sunday's immigration arrests, attempting to confirm locations and the reasons for detainment, but have not yet heard back.
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The man described to our sister station Telemundo 51 in Spanish how ICE agents came into the home and sat him and his roommates down in the living room.
Excellent collaboration today by @HSI_Miami @EROMiami , @TheJusticeDept, and our other law enforcement partners enforcing U.S. #immigration laws and ensuring the safety of our communities. pic.twitter.com/LRWSAEqizS
— HSI Miami (@HSI_Miami) January 26, 2025
“They came in, they didn’t say anything. They were looking for a man, I think,” the witness said. “They came in like they were in their own home... they were going to break the doors to the room so they’d open. They held us here a while.”
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But the man they were searching for wasn’t home, according to the father.
“He had a deportation order. They were looking for him…didn’t find him, and took everyone else,” the witness said.
In all, three people were detained, according to the father, but he could not provide much detail about who they were.
“They live here, but I don’t know them well, because we all kind of stick to our rooms and to ourselves,” he said. “There’s not much conversation, because most of the time we’re working here.”
The father said during the raid, the agents appeared to be waiting for a particular officer to arrive, and when he did, he “gave the order to put them in the cars and take them away.”
As he spoke to Telemundo 51, a child could be heard calling, "papi, papi," several times.
“I’m scared, for my girl, a daughter that’s with me, and of course, I’m scared,” he said. “I don’t know [if they’re coming back], they left and didn’t say anything else.”
NBC6 has also reached out to the involved agencies to confirm that the local arrests from Sunday are directly linked to President Donald Trump’s executive order that cracks down on immigration.
