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DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin on Tuesday strongly rejected a report from NBC News alleging that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents used a 5-year-old autistic girl as “bait” to arrest her father, an illegal alien from Guatemala, in Massachusetts.
A video obtained by Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra shows the girl sitting beside a law enforcement SUV, holding a bottle, while surrounded by several male officers outside her home in Leominster last Tuesday.
NBC reported that the father, Edwards Hip Mejia, told his wife he believed he was being followed and drove home. Once there, he allegedly ran toward the parking lot, but agents “grabbed” their daughter, the wife told Telemundo.
Mejia was ultimately detained two days later, his wife told Telemundo, and is being held in Plymouth, Massachusetts.