5-year-old held by ICE agents outside home during father's arrest
Sep 16, 2025·Location: Leominster, MA
Country of origin: Guatemala

A 5-year-old U.S. citizen girl with autism was surrounded by ICE agents outside her family's home in Leominster, Massachusetts, while agents attempted to arrest her father, Edwards Hip Mejia, a Guatemalan national who had lived in the U.S. for more than two decades. Video showed the girl sitting in the driveway near an SUV as agents asked her father, who had fled into the house, to come outside. Her family and attorney said ICE used the child to pressure Hip Mejia into surrendering, while DHS said he abandoned his daughter in a car while fleeing agents after a traffic stop. Local police responded, and the girl was taken to a police station before being reunited with her grandmother after about three hours. Hip Mejia was detained by ICE two days later and is currently held at a detention center in Plymouth; his attorney said prior domestic-abuse charges cited by DHS had been dismissed, and a judge later granted him bond.
Timeline
Sources
- NBC News
- Video shows ICE with 5-year-old girl while agents attempt to arrest her father
nbcdfw.com·Sep 22, 2025·archived copy
- Leominster family says ICE agents held their daughter outside their home so they would turn themselves over
Boston Globe·Sep 23, 2025
- ICE used autistic 5-year-old to 'lure' Leominster father, family's lawyer says
boston.com·Sep 30, 2025
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