Immigration lawyer trying to reunite mother, child claims ICE agent shoved her

A Kansas City immigration lawyer claimed an ICE agent shoved her to the ground while she tried to reunited a 3-year-old boy with his Honduran mother, before deportation. (REUTERS)

A Kansas City, Mo., lawyer claims an agent from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shoved her to the ground Tuesday morning while she was trying to reunite a 3-year-old boy with his Honduran mother before the mother and child were deported.

The lawyer, Andrea Martinez, told the Kansas City Star that the altercation outside ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations office in Kansas City left her with a fractured right foot, and a bloodied left ankle and knee. She added that the agent physically separated the boy, Noah, from her, the report said.

ICE released a statement to FOX 4, saying it takes the allegations “very seriously” and was looking into the matter.

Noah was previously separated from his mother, Kenia Bautistia-Mayorga, 23, while she spent more than a month in Platte County Jail in Missouri. Bautistia-Mayorga, an undocumented immigrant, is currently six months pregnant, according to the Star.

The baby’s father, Luis Alfredo Diaz Inestroza, also an undocumented immigrant from Honduras, looked after the boy while the mother was in jail.

On Tuesday, the father accompanied Noah to say goodbye before the mother and child were deported, but his status made him a target for detainment, Martinez told the Star. She said the ICE agent pulled the father and Noah inside the center office while she waited outside.

A few minutes later, she said she was allowed in the building. She said Noah and his mother were crying and hugging. The father was detained and sent to a central Missouri jail, where he was being held without bond.

Bautisa-Mayorga was reportedly taken into custody in February 2016 for illegally crossing the Texas border. A judge released her on her own recognizance but she did not attend the hearing.

Since then, Bautisa-Mayorga and her son have been living with Inestroza in Texas. They were detained after an officer pulled them over in May. Inestroza was told he had two months to leave the country.