Cambridge Woman Faces Backlash For Allegedly Calling ICE On Migrant Workers Repairing Her Roof

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents recently detained six illegal immigrants while they were still working. The bizarre news came to the light through a Facebook Live video, which showed six migrant workers repairing the roof of a woman’s home in Maryland.

​Viral clips from the live stream showed the workers climbing down from the roof of the home as the ICE agents waited on the lawn. They were then taken into custody on the grounds that they had entered the country illegally.

​The video in question was shot by one of the workers, Bryan Polanco. He accused the homeowner of calling ICE agents on them, despite her having hired them to fix the roof of her home. Speaking in Spanish, the man stated, “We came to fix this lady’s house, and she’s the one who turned us in.”

​Follow-up discussions about the incident on social media speculated that the woman used this as a tactic to avoid her outstanding payment to the repairmen's agency. She allegedly owed them $10,000 for a three-day job.

However, the homeowner has vehemently denied the accusation. The woman, later identified as Karen Trevino, spoke to the press and clarified that neither she nor her father called ICE. They were the only two people who resided in the property, and they hadn’t turned the workmen in to ICE.

Trevino, speaking to the Baltimore Sun, added that ever since the video went viral, she has received a lot of threats online. She revealed getting several messages from haters, who promised to target her at home.

​In the wake of these conflicting theories, the ICE have put in a very contrasting clarification. Disputing the worker’s version of the incidents, a spokesperson clarified that the operation was that of a ‘targeted enforcement’. They confirmed that the six individuals were arrested near Cambridge, but denied getting any tip about their location from a certain caller.

​ICE has upheld the rhetoric that the arrests were a part of the broader immigration enforcement task being carried out in the region. Regarding the workers' arrest, the agency clarified that some of them even had final orders of deportation in their names. Moreover, one of the six workers was accused of forced re-entry into the country.

​Amid backlash that the incident has caused on social media, local authorities have, however, refused to be connected to the matter. They said they were not even remotely associated with the federal operation. On the other hand, police have also denied participating in the raid and subsequent arrests of the six workers.

​While the repairmen were arrested right on the spot, the homeowner’s roof was later fixed by a different set of workers. However, the debate over the unpaid wages of these arrested migrant workers was still hugely debated on social media.

​It must be noted that the state law prohibits receiving labor through wrongful use of notifying law enforcement about a person’s undocumented citizenship status.