Iranian citizen Mahdi Khanbabazadeh was arrested for overstaying visas, a spokesman for the US Immigration and Customs told CBS News on Friday.
A spokesperson said ICE officials tried to arrest Kambabazadeh during a traffic stop when they asked for permission to remove their children at day care. The agency granted him to the school’s parking lot, where he “resisted arrest and refused to leave his car.”
An ICE official broke one of the vehicle’s windows to “complete the arrest,” a spokesman added that Khanbabazadeh’s child was unharmed.
“It was just a mess,” Randy Cornfield, who had lost his grandson at Guide Post Montessault School in South Beaburton, Oregon at the time of his arrest, told CBS affiliate Koin. “There were a lot of parents who were upset, and of course, that doesn’t have to happen in kindergarten or any school.
Immigration attorney Caroline Medeiros said he provided advice and guidance to the school and his family, but told local media that seven unmarked cars were arrested by pulling them into the school’s parking lot. She says that while his wife asked where they were taking him, Kambabazadeh had been dragged out of the car.
Medeiros has a daughter who attended school and played outside when the arrest occurred, she told CBS News via email Friday.
“Thankfully, the kids didn’t see anything, but it was definitely a dangerous and traumatic situation, as there were several armed masked police officers in the foot-foot parking lot where they were playing,” she said in an email.
MA/PR