Woman caught in viral video attempting to cease ICE officers launches fundraiser: ‘I am living in fear’ | EUROtoday

A girl on the heart of a viral video during which neighbors in Worcester, Massachusetts, banded collectively in an try and thwart an operation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to detain a household has launched a fundraiser.

Writing on GoFundMe, Augusta Clara, who’s believed to be of Brazilian descent, says that she is the mom seen within the now-viral video recorded on the morning of Thursday, May 8, on Eureka Street within the New England metropolis.

Explaining the background to the chaotic occasions that unfolded that day, she writes: “Everything began the day before, when ICE arrested my partner — the father of my 3-month-old son — while he was driving to work.”

“He had committed no crime. His only ‘mistake’ was honking at a car that had cut him off. That vehicle turned out to be an undercover ICE car, and agents decided to arrest him,” she says.

“The next morning, ICE came to my home, demanding I return my partner’s car and report to sign immigration paperwork. I left my house with my 17-year-old sister and my baby, intending to comply. That’s when ICE stopped my car and told me I was under arrest. Since I was with my baby, I called my mother to come take my son,” Clara continues.

“When she arrived, ICE agents tried to arrest her too. Then they violently pinned my sister to the ground — as seen in the viral video — and arrested both her and my mother. They even tried to take my baby from me, but thanks to neighbors who recorded and protested, they backed down.”

Clara provides: “Now I am living in fear. I’m staying with friends, unable to return home or retrieve any of my belongings or my baby’s things. I cannot work, and I’m struggling to survive.”

Asking for help from donors, she says proceeds will go towards fundamental wants like meals, garments, shelter, authorized charges, bail, and different pressing bills.

As of 9 p.m. ET on May 15, the GoFundMe had raised $3,320.

The dramatic video footage, which has since gone viral on-line, was captured by a witness on the scene and exhibits a lady clinging to an toddler baby as ICE brokers try and arrest her.

A swarm of 25 locals gathered, with one heard demanding to see identification and a warrant and calling to cease the chaos. “We don’t have to show you anything,” an ICE agent reportedly advised the gang.

Immigration officers known as upon officers from the Worcester police for backup, with the division describing in an announcement how the “unruly” crowd “put their hands on federal agents and Worcester officers.”

In the chaos that ensued, Clara’s sister was chased and restrained, and her “face was slammed into the ground,” NBC Boston famous.

Among these arrested was Worcester School Committee candidate Ashley Spring, who’s accused of throwing an “unknown liquid” at officers. Her costs embody assault and battery on a police officer.

Worcester City Councilor Etel Haxhiaj was one of many residents who, she mentioned, shaped a “human ring” across the detainees.

“As an elected official, it is my obligation to stand up for my constituents,” she mentioned in an announcement. “The way immigrants in Worcester and across the Commonwealth are being targeted and terrorized by this federal administration for deportation is absolutely unconstitutional.”

“What kind of person takes a mother away from her family?” one other neighbor questioned. “Everyone is fed up! It’s disgusting seeing ICE across the country tearing families apart.”

City Manager Eric Batista wrote in an announcement that the occasions have been “disturbing” and “harrowing,” however mentioned that law enforcement officials have been there to uphold peace and to not help ICE with detainments.

Meanwhile, Worcester Mayor Joseph Petty known as the altercation “devastating.”

Local authorities officers mentioned that they’d not been advised in regards to the ICE operation beforehand.