The New Haven mom arrested by federal immigration officers in her driveway last year as her children looked on is suing the U.S. government over the trauma inflicted on her family.
Nancy Martinez alleges officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acted in an abusive manner when they took her into custody, intentionally causing severe emotional distress by surrounding the family and having four masked agents take her away.
The encounter left the children with ongoing depression and confusion, inability to focus on schoolwork and trouble sleeping, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in federal court.
Meanwhile, Martinez has suffered anxiety, stress-induced headaches, hair loss and other health problems, the suit says.
A year later, the arrest is still hard for Martinez to talk about. She joined her lawyers virtually on Monday from Mexico City. Through tears, she recalled being handcuffed as her children watched.
“All I could see were the men's bodies towering over my daughter’s small frame," she said in Spanish. “All I could hear was my son crying.”
Martinez couldn’t understand what was happening, as everyone was speaking English. Eventually, Martinez said one of the agents motioned an airplane taking off, and she understood this was ICE.
“They didn't tell us what was going on,” said her teenage daughter, Monse. “They just did what they did, leaving two kids behind on the sidewalk without stopping to make sure that someone was there who could take care of us.”
A month later, Nancy Martinez was deported.
ICE did not respond to a request for comment Monday about the lawsuit or to inquiries last year regarding the incident.
ICE Boston spokesperson James Covington told The New Haven Independent at the time that Martinez was “an illegally present, previously deported Mexican national" and described pending misdemeanor criminal charges that had been filed against her.
The year since
Martinez laments missing milestones in her 9- and 14-year-olds’ lives, like school graduations and birthdays. This coming January, her daughter, Monse, turns 15, which would typically be celebrated with a large party in Mexican culture, known as a quinceañera.
“It pains me to know I cannot give my daughter a hug after she walks across the stage or help with her hair on her milestone birthday,” she said in Spanish.
A quinceañera is not just a nice gown and choreography but a coming-of-age celebration marking a girl becoming a woman. Already though, Monse said, she has had to take on a lot of adult responsibilities in her mom’s absence, particularly with her little brother.
“He is constantly scared and now never wants to leave my side,” Monse Martinez said. “He has trouble sleeping in his own bedroom out of fear that he will lose someone else.”
According to her lawsuit, Nancy Martinez was born in Mexico City and entered the United States in 2010. She was removed soon after, but reentered the country later that year and remained in the U.S. for 15 years, residing with her family in a first-floor apartment on Frank Street in New Haven.
Martinez became a target for immigration officers soon after she was involved in what the lawsuit calls a minor altercation with her sister-in-law in March 2025 over a babysitting dispute. Martinez was arrested and charged with assault and breach of peace. According to the suit, she reached an agreement with prosecutors to drop the charges if she attended anger management classes, and there was no finding of guilt in the case.
Martinez was due to appear in court on the morning she was detained by ICE officers, according to the suit. The filing says the state has since dropped the charges because Martinez was deported.
Martinez accuses the federal government of intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment, assault, abuse of process, recklessness, negligence and depriving her children of their mother's care.
Martinez and her two children are being represented in the case by Yale Law School's Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic. Law student intern Brenda Cachay Gutiérrez said ICE's cruelty was an intentional abuse of power “meant to terrorize the Martinez family, retaliate against Connecticut and New Haven's pro-immigrant policies, and intimidate entire communities of immigrants.”
The filing also points out the specific day Martinez was detained: June 9, 2025. That was also the day Gov. Ned Lamont signed a law that amended Connecticut’s Trust Act to further limit state and local police cooperation with ICE.
The Martinez family seeks compensatory damages in the suit. The dollar amount will be determined at trial.
