ICE Detained a Peekskill Mother and Her 4-Year-Old. She Just Shared Her Story With Us.

By Toby Rosewater

On Tuesday, six ICE agents in four unmarked cars reportedly followed 24-year-old Amy Lituma and her four-year-old son from her home in Peekskill to BJ’s Wholesale Club in Yorktown Heights. 

There, Lituma, who spoke to The Examiner through a translator on Thursday, says they surrounded her in all directions.

“I didn’t even finish parking in my spot,” she said. 

Lituma, an Ecuadorian immigrant, claims the armed men forced her out of the vehicle.

“My son started crying, he was so scared,” Lituma recalled, her voice trembling. “I did not know what to do. I just kept thinking, ‘What’s going on?’” 

The English speakers showed Lituma a photo of her partner, Wilmer Delago, and repeatedly pressed Lituma — who only speaks Spanish —for his whereabouts, which, she claims, she simply didn’t know. 

“I was freaked out — I entered my car and locked the doors and windows,” she remarked.  

Lituma said the officers, growing indignant, demanded she cooperate.

“I was calling a family member to get my son,” she explained. “I was so scared for him.”

When a friend arrived on the scene moments later, she explained to Lituma that ICE would not let her or her four-year-old son go unless Delgado turned himself in for questioning. 

No Paperwork

Concerned about the distressed toddler in the sweltering heat, the officers agreed to let Lituma drive back to her home in Peekskill.

Upon arriving, they instructed Lituma to call Delgado.

“Don’t say anything,” one officer told her, according to Lituma. “Don’t worry, it will be okay.”

After she hung up, Lituma says, the officers entered her car and seized her belongings. 

“They wouldn’t let us go inside the house, either,” she noted. “One of the officers insisted on coming in with us, but I refused.”

Moments later, Lituma recounted, they placed her under arrest.

Dinora Pacheco, the president of the Hispanic Community Corp, alleges the officers never showed Lituma the proper documentation they needed to detain her.

“If someone approaches me saying, ‘I’m from Immigration,’ but can’t provide any paperwork and still insists that I have to go with them, then how can I trust them?” she told The Examiner.

Lituma, according to Pacheco, even asked the authorities if they had a warrant.

“They told her to give them 15 minutes,” Pacheco said. “When she asked again a few minutes later, the officers said they didn’t have to show it to her.”

Throughout the process, Lituma claims, officers never presented a court order or an administrative warrant.

“Homeland security agents very rarely have warrants issued by a judge; instead, they usually have an administrative warrant,” Karin Anderson Ponzer, the director of Neighbors Link Community Law Practice, said. “These administrative warrants, which are not signed by a judge, do not give agents the authority to search a vehicle or enter a home without consent.”

Caught on Camera

The arrest, which was filmed by a neighbor and later posted to Westchester Pol(ICE) Watch on Instagram, shows Lituma embracing her young son before the two were escorted into an unmarked Dodge SUV.

“Mom, why are they here? Why are they here?” the four-year-old cried in the car. “Am I going to be in jail by myself?”

Footage of the controversial encounter quickly spread across social media, sparking outrage and fear amongst the local community.

“We’ve all watched everything that has happened in the national news,” Peekskill Councilman Ramon Fernandez told The Examiner. “But to see it happen here, well, I’ve been crying for these last few days.”

The Aftermath

From there, Lituma says the officers drove her to an unknown location about 50 minutes away.

“I have nothing against you,” an officer allegedly told her, “but it bothers me that your partner never came forward.”

In the end, Lituma and her son were released, although she now has to wear an ankle monitor and is due back in court at the end of the month.

For this reason, an immigration lawyer from Neighbors Link has already agreed to take on her case.

“I didn’t do anything…I clean houses,” Lituma told The Examiner. “More so than anything, I don’t want anything to happen to my son.”

Stories like Lituma’s have drawn increased attention in the months since President Donald Trump’s election last November, with critics saying his administration’s immigration policies and intensified ICE enforcement have fractured communities across the country.

“Over the last few months,” said Westchester County Legislator Colin Smith, “I’ve gone from never seeing local ICE raids to hearing about them all the time.”

On Wednesday, community leaders, including Fernandez, Pacheco, and Peekskill Schools Superintendent David Mauricio, held a community meeting to discuss the growing fears among local immigrant families and outline steps the city could take to support young children affected by ICE activity.

“I saw the boy Wednesday night,” Fernandez said. “He was playing, almost like nothing happened, but then he saw some police lights in the distance, and started crying: ‘The police are coming! The police are coming!’ That kind of trauma, can you imagine that?”

Phone calls seeking comment from ICE and the Peekskill Police Department were not returned.