Currents News Staff
For four hours, a man and his son sat inside of their car as two Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents tried to get them to surrender.
The father is reportedly in the country illegally, so the ICE agents were tasked with bringing him into custody.
When neighbors heard what was going on, they came to assist the father and son.
“We made sure they had water, they had food, we put gas back in the vehicle when they were getting low just to make sure they were okay,” said neighbor Felishadae Young.
These citizens of Hermitage, Tennsessee say they don’t care how someone got here, it’s how they act when they are here.
“The family don’t bother nobody, they work every day, they come home, the kids jump on their trampoline, it’s just a community,” said Stacey Farley who helped create a human chain that brought the family from their car safely into their home.
She didn’t think twice about supporting her neighbors.
“I could see if these people were bad criminals, but they’re not, they’re just trying to provide for their kids,” she explained.
The standoff brought metro police to the scene to keep the peace, and council members as well as lawyers to evaluate the situation.
“There were two immigration officials sort of bullying a family inside of their own vehicle, telling them that they had an administrative warrant, which isn’t the same thing as a judicial warrant, and trying to harass them and fear them into coming out,” said attorney Daniel Ayoadeyoon.
At the end of the day the ICE agents left and the family ended up leaving too, in search of a safer place.