Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Portland, Maine, arrested asylum-seeker Hassane Barry on Jan. 21, leaving his one-month-old infant and his wife, Nene Barry, inside the vehicle after officers shattered the driver's-side window.
What Happened
According to the Portland Press Herald, four unmarked vehicles boxed in the couple's car as they returned from an appointment to obtain a passport for their baby. Masked, armed federal agents exited the vehicles, called Hassane Barry by name and moved to detain him.
Repeatedly warning them that “there’s a baby in the car,” Nene Barry — who speaks little English and does not have a driver’s license — watched as agents smashed the driver-side window. Glass scattered across the infant’s car seat as officers pulled Hassane Barry from the vehicle and placed him into an unmarked car before departing within minutes.
“He did everything for us, and now he’s not here. What am I going to do alone with a 1-month-old baby in the cold?” Nene Barry said in French during an interview with the paper.
Video provided to the Portland Press Herald shows shards of glass inside the vehicle and on the street. A witness who asked to remain anonymous described gently lifting a hospital-issued blanket to find “this tiny peanut of a baby” crying amid fragments of glass.
Background and Status
Barry, 38, and his wife are asylum-seekers from Guinea. His attorney and a public records search report that he has no known criminal history. Barry’s English tutor told the paper he previously worked as a tow truck driver for AAA and moonlighted as a rideshare driver. At the time of reporting, Barry was being held at a detention facility in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Family members say Nene Barry is afraid to leave home and has done so only once to take the infant to a medical appointment.
The arrest occurred amid intensified ICE enforcement actions that critics say have disproportionately affected immigrants. The episode follows another controversial Portland encounter in which an agent warned a woman that filming him could put her into a “database” for “domestic terrorists,” a video that went viral.
Sources: Portland Press Herald reporting, statements from family and witnesses, Barry’s attorney, and video provided to the paper.
