Antonia Lucas says that she and her partner, Miguel Ixcuna, were driving home from a nonprofit around noon on Monday when two vehicles stopped them, blocking their vehicle in front and behind. She says a man walked up to the window and tapped on the window, asking for her identification, which she gave.
Then, she says agents opened her husband's driver side door and pulled him out.
"He was scared. They didn't even take time to talk with him really," she said. Their two daughters, ages 3 and 9, were in the back seat.
"They were very scared, afraid," Lucas said. "The agents said I needed to get him an attorney, and left."
Ixcuna was one of over two dozen people detained at roadside stops in New Bedford, Dartmouth, and Fall River by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Monday and Tuesday, according to a number of immigrant advocates.
In New Bedford alone, at least 12 immigrants were detained on Monday, said Gov. Maura Healey's office. Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores, a nonprofit that advocates for immigrants, told GBH News that at least nine additional individuals were detained on Tuesday in New Bedford.
The group also said that a few construction workers were detained in Dartmouth on Monday, and others in Fall River. Immigration advocates also said an employee of a restaurant at the Dartmouth Mall was also detained Monday.
On Tuesday, the Fall River Reporter recorded ICE agents outside of a Market Basket in Fall River.
LUCE Immigrant Justice Network of Massachusetts' New Bedford chapter put out an Instagram post saying that ICE agents are detaining people in the streets, and people should remain at home.
"People who were on on their way to work or dropping people off to work [were] being indiscriminately picked up from ICE and taken into ICE custody," said Corinn Williams, executive director of the New Bedford-based Community Economic Development Center.
"It seems like there are teams of ICE that are going to different hotspots across the city, like a gas station, where people are getting gas in their tank on their way to work, or to a Market Basket, picking up sandwiches. So it doesn't have a whole lot of rhyme or reason to it, of course, but certainly, the factor is Latino immigrants and who are men."
A group of attorneys with the Habeas Project and others have been working around the clock to file petitions in federal court over wrongful detentions, and to keep immigrants from being transferred out of state.
"I filed two habeas yesterday, I think about a dozen lawyers that volunteered to help possibly upwards of 20," said Todd Pomerleau, one of the attorneys involved.
Gov. Healey told media on Tuesday that she is demanding answers after the arrests.
"Many of those arrested have lived here for many years and have families here. They were on their way to work at a fishing plant, supermarket and other key industries for the region," she said in a media statement.
Healey said her office has heard of a father who was detained who has several children at home, including a 1-month-old baby, and an 8-year-old boy who was waiting for his father to pick him up at school when he was detained.
"ICE needs to provide information immediately. Who have they arrested and why? Our administration will continue to provide support to the community and families, but ICE needs to answer for their actions," she said.
When GBH News asked about the operation and arrests in the three municipalities and for them to provide more specific information, the Department of Homeland Security declined to provide information without specific names and dates of birth of those detained.
In a statement from an unnamed spokesperson, DHS said, "the Trump Administration is utilizing all lawful options to carry out the largest deportation operation in history, just as President Trump promised. Anyone who has been deported received full due process."
New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell said that even under new management, ICE "continues to overreach." He said there is no indication that eight individuals detained Monday morning alone had any criminal records beyond minor motor vehicle violations.
"The agency then refrained from releasing information about them, leaving their friends, family and employers in the dark. It failed yet again to notify our police department of its operations, putting at risk police officers who might arrive on scene. This is not the way the system should work," said Mitchell.
Adrian Ventura, executive director of the Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores, said that 14 federal immigration enforcement vans were outside of the mall in Dartmouth. His organization invited families who had been impacted to convene and offered local resources to them.
"One man dropped off his wife at work, went to go pick up a coffee, and they followed him to his job and detained him," Ventura said of ICE agents. "He has no record. Nothing." He and other advocates said people from Ecuador, Guatemala, and Honduras were detained, most people from Central America.
Ixcuna came to the US around 12 years ago from Guatemala and is undocumented, said Lucas. He has a driver's license, she said, and works as a fruit and vegetable packer in Plymouth.
After his detention, she called Community Economic Development Center, and an employee drove over and helped her and the children get home. Since then, an attorney affiliated with the center has filed a habeas case to contest Ixcuna's detention and keep him in Massachusetts, rather than being transferred out of state.
Lucas said she's been able to talk to him twice on the phone at Burlington's ICE Processing center, where he is detained.
"He said that that they checked his background, that they confirmed he has no record. He said he's worried about his daughters and me and his son," she said.
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