A terrified West African mother and her infant were left stranded in a car in Portland, Maine, after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents smashed in a window, spraying the child seat with broken glass, and taking away the 38-year-old father driving the car, leaving the other two left in the cold.
According to the Portland Press Herald, "Hassane Barry and his wife, Nene, both asylum seekers from the Republic of Guinea in West Africa, were driving home from an appointment to get their 1-month-old baby a passport last week. On Forest Avenue, they suddenly found themselves boxed in by four unmarked police cars."
Once the officers had Hassane in their custody, ignoring his wife's repeated pleas of "I have a baby," he was "pulled into an unmarked police car. Officers left the scene in a matter of minutes. Nene Barry, who does not have a driver’s license and speaks little English, was left alone inside the car with her infant."
According to Hassane's attorney, he has no criminal history and has followed the legal asylum process ever since arriving in 2023.
The arrest, which took place Jan. 21 as part of the Trump administration's surge of federal agents to Maine, was captured on video and uploaded to YouTube by concerned bystanders.
One witness, who wished to remain anonymous, told reporters, “There was a car seat in the back with one of those baby blankets you get at the hospital. There were broken glass shards all over it. I carefully pulled back the blanket and there was just this tiny peanut of a baby. He was crying. I picked him up and hushed him, told him it was gonna be OK. He nuzzled into my neck and stopped crying. I almost broke down right then and there.”
This week, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) announced that the Trump administration had agreed to de-escalate the operation in Maine — but Maine Democrats are hammering her over her decision to support a Department of Homeland Security funding bill that would increase ICE budgets even further.
- YouTube youtu.be
