TAKEN

Teen Detained by ICE After Scuffle With Brother Over Cellphone

The 18-year-old was first arrested by police after she admitted to pushing her 12-year-old sibling during an argument, according to a report.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials detained a Boston-area teenager on Monday after she was arrested following an argument with her sibling over a cellphone. Zeneyda Barrera, 18—who is originally from Nicaragua but lives with her mother and 12-year-old brother in Lynn, Massachusetts—wanted to use her brother’s phone but he refused, according to a police report cited by The Daily Item. They began arguing and she pushed him, prompting a concerned third party to call the police and report a possible domestic violence incident. After the siblings told the police what had happened, officers arrested the teen for assault and battery, according to the report. She was then taken into ICE custody at Lynn District Court and is now at risk of being deported, Lynn Mayor Jared C. Nicholson said Tuesday. “We’ve been told that ICE is going to be targeting violent offenders whose presence in our communities puts the community at risk,” Nicholson told the Item. “We don’t fully understand yet what triggered ICE’s actions in this particular case, but what I’ve learned so far suggests that’s not what’s happening here.” ICE’s field office in Boston did not return the newspaper’s requests for comment Tuesday.