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FITCHBURG — A Fitchburg man involved in a violent struggle with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Thursday said an agent pushed him, hit around his ribs, and pressed on his neck, causing him to become unconscious as he clung to his wife and young daughter. After a video of the incident went viral, the federal government said agents were targeting the man’s wife after she allegedly stabbed a co-worker in the hand and accused the man of faking a medical emergency to help her evade authorities.
Carlos Sebastian Zapata said in an interview with the Globe that he feared being separated from his wife, who was taken into custody Thursday morning by immigration agents.
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“I wasn’t letting go of my wife because they wanted to take her away,” Zapata, 24, said in Spanish Friday during a phone interview.
Video footage of the incident shows bystanders growing concerned and shouting for Zapata’s safety as the agents struggled with him and his wife in a car. He appeared to be suffering from a seizure as he held his young child.
In a social media post Friday afternoon, the US Department of Homeland Security asserted that Zapata was faking his medical condition.
“Imagine FAKING a seizure to help a criminal escape justice,” the department, which oversees ICE, wrote in the post.
Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary at the agency, said in a social media post that agents were conducting an operation to target Zapata’s wife, Juliana Milena Zapata, who is originally from Ecuador. She had recently been charged with stabbing a co-worker. McLaughlin defended the federal agents and DHS claimed emergency medical personnel who examined Zapata “found no legitimate medical episode.”
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The incident comes amid President Trump’s ramped up deportation agenda, which included a surge in arrests in September known as Operation Patriot 2.0. In that month, immigration authorities detained more than 1,400 people in Massachusetts on immigration related matters, though fewer than half of those people had any notable criminal record.
It also comes amid increasing criticism of ICE’s strong-arm tactics in carrying out immigration arrests, which are largely a civil matter. On Thursday, a federal judge in Chicago issued a preliminary injunction imposing strict limits on the use of force by federal immigration agents in that area after a group of journalists, clergy, and protestors sued.
Recent ICE arrests in Massachusetts, in which agents have broken car windows, held a 5-year-old girl to lure a parent outside, and allegedly assaulted targets have also raised concern among advocates, who also call out police for not doing enough to preserve the peace.
Attorney Dolores Thibault-Muñoz, who said she was asked to go to the scene by a person connected to the Zapatas, said Friday she saw Fitchburg police officers who appeared to be protecting federal immigration agents.
“This did not make the community feel safe,” said Thibault-Muñoz, a former Fitchburg city councilor. “Something broke down. Something failed yesterday and it’s going to cause ripple effects.”
The incident in Fitchburg began just before 7 a.m., on Kimball Street. Zapata said he was taking his wife, 24, to her shift working at Burger King when suddenly several cars blocked off his vehicle, and agents began banging on their windows. When his wife rolled down the window, agents began to try and arrest her, Zapata said.
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Both parents clung to each other and their 1½-year-old daughter, Alaia Zapata, in the car as the agents attempted to take his wife out of the vehicle, Zapata said.
“They were pushing us together, there with our baby in the middle,” Zapata told the Globe.
Zapata said he lost consciousness after the agents pressed on his neck.
“I had convulsions or something. I don’t know what they did to me,” he said.
When he regained consciousness, agents were putting handcuffs on him, and his wife was holding their daughter. Zapata said the ICE agents gave them a choice: They could arrest the mother, and their daughter could stay with Zapata. Or ICE would arrest both parents, and their daughter would be taken into state custody.
“I don’t want my daughter to be with the state,” his wife said, he recalled.
ICE agents then took Milena Zapata away, while Zapata and Alaia stayed.
A close family member later helped Zapata take care of Alaia as he went to the hospital for medical assistance, where he remained until about 3 a.m. on Friday, he said. Medical professionals said his neck looked healthy, but that he had bruises on his body, Zapata said.
The couple is from Ecuador, and had crossed the border unlawfully several years ago, Zapata said, but turned themselves in to immigration authorities and applied for asylum. They currently have a pending asylum case and valid work authorization, Zapata said.
They got married about a year ago in Massachusetts, after being together for seven years. Alaia is a US citizen.
Zapata said the family had been worried about immigration authorities in recent months under the Trump administration, but were trying to focus on working and creating a future for their family here.
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“We have had constant fear … but we didn’t think it would really happen to us. But it has,” Zapata said.
Zapata said his wife’s pending criminal case in Leominster District Court had been blown out of proportion, and that his wife had been attending all her court dates. She has pleaded not guilty, and the case is still pending. She is now being held at the Cumberland County Jail in Maine.
“We came here to work, not to cause harm or anything like that,” Zapata said.
According to court records, Milena Zapata was accused of stabbing a woman with scissors in the hand and throwing a trash can at her during a dispute over a relationship she believed the woman had with her husband. She was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
McLaughlin of DHS accused bystanders of trying to interfere with the arrest and said Fitchburg police responded to help control the crowd.
In a statement, Fitchburg police said officers were there to keep the peace.
“The Fitchburg Police Department does not enforce federal immigration laws, nor do we interfere with the lawful actions of other law enforcement agencies,” the department said.
Several bystanders took video of the incident. One of the videos shows a struggle inside the car, while bystanders yell, “He’s having a seizure!” A Fitchburg police officer is heard yelling, “Back up!”
“They’re trying to rip the baby out of her hand,” one person says.
A community vigil to protest the enforcement and support the family is slated for 5 p.m. Saturday outside Fitchburg City Hall.
“You don’t want people who came through illegally to stay here, and that is OK. But what’s not OK is the way you’re doing it,” a witness, Quejanae Beavers-Hatter, said. “You can feel whatever way you want, but you can’t sit here and say that it’s OK to drag somebody out of a car in a method that quite literally looks like a mob kidnapping.”
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Myles Phillips-Wilcox, the deputy chief of staff for Mayor Samantha M. Squailia, said he was alerted to the arrest Thursday morning by an acquaintance, and he went to the scene. He said the office received numerous calls Friday about the incident. The mayor later said in a statement that police are conducting an “after-action review of their involvement in this incident to ensure policies and best practices were followed.”
“I think it was confusing for local law enforcement to understand what role they needed to play in protecting the peace,” Phillips-Wilcox said. “I personally am disappointed in what I saw from our federal government agency ... they were belligerent, they were unprofessional, untrained.”
Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @giuliamcdnr. Laura Crimaldi can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @lauracrimaldi. John Hilliard can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at john_hilliard.70. Follow him on Bluesky at iamjohnhilliard.bsky.social.