Cries, screams and shouting punctuated the quiet summer afternoon on Liberty Street Tuesday, July 15, as six Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents removed 24-year-old Amy Lituma and her four-year-old son from their home. Later that evening, Lituma and her child were back home. 

That night, Lituma said her four-year-old child did not sleep, wet the bed twice, and woke up repeatedly, terrified, looking for his mother.

“That has caused him deep trauma,” Lituma told the Peekskill Herald the following day. “I cannot be away from him for even a second or he panics.”

Mother recounts moment leading up to detainment on Tuesday

Lituma said she, her son and her godmother’s granddaughter were followed by police in the BJ’s parking lot in Yorktown, who then intercepted and surrounded her with cars. Because she doesn’t speak English, Lituma’s relative translated the police’s words for her. Lituma said she had trouble understanding what was happening, the heat and shouting adding to the confusion and chaos. 

But Lituma said the police’s target was not her, but rather her husband, claiming agents forced her to call her husband from the parking lot. 

“I asked him, ‘Do you know what is happening? I do not know why they are looking for you. I do not know what to tell them.’ He only said, ‘Do not say anything. They do not have a warrant,’ and he hung up.”

Lituma said she has not heard from him since.

“They allowed me to go home,” Lituma said. “They said, ‘We will follow you. Do not try anything.”

Onlookers capture detainment of mother and child

Once they reached her Liberty Avenue home, the agents did not enter her house. “They told me the problem was with my husband.”

However, several videos and surveillance footage soon captured Lituma pleading with agents to let her go while her son begged on his knees, hands raised, repeating, “Please, no.” Lituma recalled seeing several onlookers gathering around and recording the scene with their cellphones.

“In my desperation I was asking for help, but now I understand people are afraid to get involved in something so complicated,” Lituma said.

A Peekskill resident who was alerted to the encounter filmed a video (see below). 

He said, “Eventually I overheard, ‘They’re gonna stay together,’” referring to the screaming child. They escorted Lituma and her son to a silver Durango. There was a lot of screaming and crying according to the witness. “They didn’t have a carseat and there was a lot of confusion around that. They eventually bundled the child and drove off.”

Videos of the encounter filmed by multiple people quickly went viral on social media. Lituma was captured telling her child everything would be alright and that he could take a toy with him. While clinging to Lituma’s neck, the child was placed into the back of a HSI vehicle.

Lituma and son taken to Newburgh

After being detained, Lituma and her son were taken to Newburgh, NY. There, she said the treatment was different and “less harsh.” She was asked to call a family member to pick her up.  

Lituma came to the United States from Ecuador when her son was eight months old. When she arrived, Lituma said she had an immigration case that included a deportation order but had been told that as long as she did not get into any trouble, she could go about her life without concern. She did not explain who told her this. 

But now, due to the situation involving her husband, Lituma said her case has been reopened.

On Tuesday, before she left Newburgh,  Lituma was told to report on Wednesday, July 16, to the immigration office in the Bronx. As a precautionary measure, Lituma was fitted with an ankle monitor in the Bronx because she now has an open case with ICE.  She is not allowed to travel more than 60 miles. She must report regularly, sometimes in person, other times virtually. Her next hearing is scheduled for July 29.

Now she has a lawyer and is evaluating her legal options. Her greatest concern is her child’s well-being. “Even if they deported his father, I want to resolve my son’s legal situation. We have done nothing wrong. We only came for a better future for him.”

Lituma said her  husband is a mechanic. “He is not a bad man. He is a present father. His son is everything to him. He has never let anything be missing from our home. I do not know what they might have involved him in. I am worried for his future. He is my partner and the father of my child. I hope someone is helping him and that they do not treat him like a criminal, because he is not. Many people can vouch for that.”

The only prior interaction her husband has had with law enforcement, Lituma says, was a DUI (Driving Under the Influence) for operating a vehicle while intoxicated.

Police, electeds, and community comment on detainment

A spokesperson for the Peekskill Police Department said the department had no involvement in the detainment. In a social media post by the city on Wednesday, Mayor Vivian McKenzie emphasized that the department does not engage in civil immigration enforcement activities carried out by ICE.

“Our local officers do not question individuals about their immigration status, nor do they detain people at ICE’s request without a valid judicial warrant. This policy has been in place and will continue to be upheld,” McKenzie said.

McKenzie shared information about “red cards” in the event a parent or guardian is detained. The cards outline individuals rights when interacting with immigration officials, and parental authorization forms, allowing them to name a trusted adult to care for their child if they cannot. She also said the city is working with state representatives to obtain authorization forms that would allow designated officials access to information about detained individuals.

In a social media post Wednesday, Councilman Ramon Fernandez said that he hasn’t been able to contain his tears since watching the video of Lituma’s son pleading with law enforcement and that they are witnessing “limitless cruelty” focused on a specific demographic group and that

“If they focused on gang members and criminals, we’d all be in agreement,” Fernandez said. “But this mother and her son, who did they kill?  This pain I feel has been exploding in my chest ever since yesterday, when we were trying to get them an immigration lawyer before they were taken away.”

William Schweppe, a Mount Kisco man who runs a neighborhood watch network on Facebook that monitors ICE and immigration activities, told the Herald he wasn’t at BJ’s but was notified that agents were talking with Lituma. People from his network followed the agents to Lituma’s home and recorded what was happening at about 2 p.m.

Schweppe criticized the lack of communication from law enforcement agencies surrounding such detainments.

“Now that child, that four-year-old child is screaming, ‘La policia, la policia.’ So now the neighbors, the little cousins, the little classmates, everyone’s gonna be like, ‘Dad, there’s a cop coming. Go the other way.’ We don’t want that in the community, that’s just gonna cause chaos.”

The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement did not respond for comment.

According to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, HSI conducts federal criminal investigations into the illegal movement of people, goods, money, contraband, weapons and sensitive technology into, out of and through the United States. HSI’s investigations are wide ranging – cases include drug and weapons smuggling, cyber and financial crime, illegal technology exports and intellectual property crime. They also investigate crimes of exploitation. That includes combating child exploitation, human trafficking, financial fraud and scams and other crimes against vulnerable populations.