“They just left him there”: Waltham city councilor describes ice interaction that the boy left alone

On the morning of Sunday, May 4, the city councilor of Waltham, Colleen Bradley-Macarthur, received a message that told her that ice officers carried out activities in her area.

The message came from a local group of volunteers That works to verify and follow the enforcement of immigration in the city and around the state. Bradley-Macarthur was told that agents were near the town hall of Waltham, so they decided to go and have a look. She didn’t expect to find a lot. But on arrival she saw several vehicles with tinted windows and masked men who wore tactical equipment. She knew these were federal agents.

Bradley-Macarthur had participated in training to prepare for these exact circumstances, but it was her first time she had an immediate interaction with Ice and she still felt scared. She and other volunteers took out their phones and started to record. But soon the officers moved to nearby Felton Street. Bradley-Macarthur followed.

The scene that greeted her was shocking. Unmarked vehicles blocked the entire street, while more masked agents considered. On a sidewalk stood a boy who seemed to be around 12 alone. At a certain point an unmarked vehicle drove to her and waved at the last minute. It felt like an attempted intimidation, she remembered.

Some agents spoke with the child. Others told Bradley-Macarthur to go back and not to interfere. None of them answered her questions, but she kept filming. The federal agents were there for what felt like an eternity, she said, but suddenly they got into their cars and drove away.

The boy was left alone. Bradley-Macarthur would later discover that the person he was with was held and was loaded in an ice vehicle before she arrived in Felton Street.

“I couldn’t believe that they just left him there,” Bradley-Macarthur told Boston.com. “I can’t imagine what kind of trauma he will have by seeing that.”

Images taken by Bradley-Macarthur and shared with Boston.com can be viewed below.

Bradley-Macarthur and other volunteers spoke with the child. Some offered him to walk home.

More than a week away from the incident, Bradley-Macarthur still feels angry.

“I was not prepared for how angry I saw these masked men. They looked like those white supremacists with the tiki flares marching through neighborhoods to intimidate people. It just raged that they would get into my community and terrorize my neighbors,” she said.

Spokespersons for ICE did not respond to a request for comments on Wednesday.

Bradley-Macarthur followed members of the Waltham police, who with her confirmed that they played no role in the ICE operations. Local police services in Massachusetts are not legally allowed to perform arrests on the basis of federal civil immigration issues.

The incident is one of the many who have been alerted and angry in Massachusetts in Massachusetts in recent months. A few days after Bradley-Macarthur witnessed ice officers who left the boy alone, a Worcester district descended into chaos after dozens of residents surrounded agents to hold a member of an immigrant family. Two people, including a candidate for the Worcester School Committee, were arrested. The outrage was immediately and seems to grow.

Earlier this week, ice officers were again filmed in Waltham. This time they saw a bus window breaking to arrest two men, NBC10 Boston reported.

For Bradley-Macarthur, ice operations in Waltham seem to have become more “more serious and more serious” in recent weeks. She hopes that this will encourage her colleague chosen officials to get in touch with members of the community.

“I think all chosen officials in Waltham should be in their community and hear these stories, because I think it will have an impact and emphasize how serious this situation is,” she said.

Bradley-Macarthur offered nothing more than praise for the Waltham police and emphasized how members of the Community Increase Department kept residents to build trust in the department. But the presence has been low, the police told Bradley-Macarthur. She told them that residents are afraid and attributes the low presence figures to that fear.

Bradley-Macarthur follows sharply on reports of ice activity throughout the area. She saw video of the incident in Worcester and is worried about how things can keep escalating.

“I am worried that the Worcester levels will reach or worse, and that will bring more recoil at the federal level, which we don’t want,” she said.