Photo: Nashvile Noticias/Facebook
A group of Tennessee residents sprang into action on Monday to protect a man and his 12-year-old son when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers attempted to take the pair into custody.
ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment from PEOPLE.
Nashvile Noticias/Facebook
The residents cheered as the man and son made it inside safely.
“They came to the wrong community on the wrong day,” one neighbor could be heard saying during the standoff,according to theNashville Scene.
One neighbor, Angela Glass, told theScenethat the family had been living there for 14 years.
“They don’t bother anybody,” said Glass. “Our kids play with their kids. It’s just one big community. And we don’t want to see anything happen to them. They’re good people. They’ve been here 14 years, leave them alone. To me, they’re considered Americans.”
The situation unfolded after an ICE representative called the police department, saying that the man drove home when ICE agents tried to pull him over, a Metro Nashville Police Department spokesperson tells PEOPLE in a statement. Responding police learned that ICE agents were attempting to serve a detainer, a civil warrant.
Although the ICE officers hold that the incident stemmed from a traffic stop, neighbors reported seeing the agents sitting in a mysterious unmarked truck since Sunday, theTennesseanreported.
Tristan Call, who is part of a human rights group and took part in the residents’ efforts, applauded the neighbors.
Residents form a human chain around man and son as ICE agents attempt to take them into custody.Nashvile Noticias/Facebook
On Tuesday, theNew York Timesreported that more than 2,000 migrants in the U.S. illegally “were targeted in widely publicized raids that unfolded across the country last week. The government said just 35 people were detained, according to theTimes.
The raids come as human rights groups decry the unsanitary conditions at processing facilities for migrants at the border. The crisis has sparked outrage as at least two dozen migrants have died in ICE custody during President Donald Trump administration,according to NBC News.
source: people.com
