Federal immigration agents are under fire after detaining a 5-year-old girl outside her home in what witnesses say was an aggressive tactic to force her immigrant father out of the house.
The Tuesday morning encounter, caught on video in Leominster and reported by WBTS-CD (NBC10 Boston), shows Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents using the child — who is reportedly on the autism spectrum — to bait her father, Edward Hip, into stepping outside his home. Hip, a Guatemalan national who’s lived in the U.S. for 22 years, had just returned home.
“Is that your daughter? Come here so I can see those IDs,” one of the ICE agents can be heard saying in the footage, while the young girl stands confused and surrounded by unfamiliar men.
As the video rolls, the child’s mother pleads with agents to give her daughter back, telling them the girl is neurodivergent and had followed her father outside before being grabbed by agents. The agents refuse.
“Hey, I can give [the ID] through the door,” Hip offers from inside the home, trying to comply without stepping outside. But the agent shoots back: “No. You come outside.”
At this point, the family calls the local police and reports the incident as harassment. Officers arrive and eventually return the girl to her parents. But the trauma had already been done — to the child, the family, and the community watching it all unfold in real time.
“[ICE agents] threatened us, saying that if we didn’t open the door within 15 minutes, they would enter the house,” the girl’s mother told Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra.
But it didn’t end there.
Two days later, ICE agents returned. This time, they waited until Hip got into his car, then pulled him out and arrested him. He’s now being held at the ICE detention facility in Plymouth.
“Officers came out behind my house, arrested him, took him away,” his wife said. “We are not criminals.”
The family’s case is far from black and white. Hip and his wife both have an active asylum claim — they’re not undocumented, and they’re parents to two U.S.-born children. Their situation is still being processed legally, and yet the tactics used against them look like something out of a manhunt, not a civil immigration case.
Lizeth Román, a neighbor and close family friend, didn’t mince words.
“The use of bounty hunters and officers without a warrant (should) be investigated,” Román said. “They had them cornered. We don’t know if they’re still there right now. They came out from behind the house, got in through there, and tried to get into our window.”
What exactly are ICE’s rules here? Federal immigration officers are supposed to have a warrant signed by a judge to enter someone’s home. In this case, agents appear to have sidestepped the law by detaining a child outside the home — a move that critics say is not only unethical but legally questionable.
The video, now widely shared, has sparked a fresh wave of criticism against ICE’s enforcement tactics, with advocates demanding accountability and answers. Critics say using a 5-year-old child to bait her father outside isn’t just bad optics — it’s crossing a line.
So far, ICE has not commented publicly on the incident.
Watch the full NBC10 Boston report below:
