OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) A woman says her family’s fresh start in Oklahoma turned into a nightmare after federal immigration agents raided their home, taking their phones, laptops and life savings even though they were not the suspects the agents were looking for.
The agents had a search warrant for the home, the woman said, but the suspects listed on the warrant do not live in the house.
The woman, whom affiliate KFOR will refer to as “Marisa,” had just moved to Oklahoma City from Maryland with her family about two weeks earlier. They rented a house in a seemingly safe Oklahoma City neighborhood, looking for a slower, more affordable pace of life.
“I was like, ‘OK, Oklahoma’s my home now,’” Marisa said.
But any sense of comfort they began to feel in Oklahoma City disappeared Thursday morning, when about 20 men, armed with guns, busted through the door.
“I don’t know who they were,” Marisa told KFOR through tears. “It was dark. All the lights were off.”
Marisa said the men identified themselves as federal agents with the U.S. Marshals, ICE and the FBI. On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals Service denied having agents present during the raid, telling KFOR they were “aware of the operation before it happened,” but did not assist in any capacity.
Agents allegedly order family into the rain before they could put clothes on
“I keep asking them, ‘Who are you? What are you doing here? What’s happening?’” she remembered. “And they said, ‘We have a warrant for the house, a search warrant.’”
The agents then ordered Marisa and her daughters outside into the rain before they could even put on clothes, Marisa said.
“They wanted me to change in front of all of them, in between all of them,” she said. “My husband has not even seen my daughter in her undergarments her own dad because it’s respectful. You have her out there, a minor, in her underwear.”
Agents were ‘very rough, very careless’: Mother
Marisa eventually learned the names on the search warrant did not belong to her or anyone in her family. Instead, she recognized them as names listed on mail still arriving at the house, likely former residents.
“We just moved here from Maryland,” she said. “We’re citizens. That’s what I kept saying. ‘We’re citizens.’”
She said the agents didn’t care.
“They were very dismissive, very rough, very careless,” Marisa said. “I kept pleading. I kept telling them we weren’t criminals. They were treating us like criminals. We were here by ourselves. We didn’t do anything.”
Marisa said the agents tore apart every square inch of the house and rifled through what few belongings they had, ultimately seizing their phones, laptops and their life savings in cash as “evidence.”
‘It was so denigrating’: Oklahoma City mother
“I told them before they left, I said, ‘You took my phone. We have no money. I just moved here,’” she said. “’I have to feed my children. I’m going to need gas money. I need to be able to get around.’ Like, how do you just leave me like this? Like an abandoned dog.”
Before they left, Marisa said one of the agents made a comment acknowledging that the ordeal must be “a little rough” for her.
“It was so denigrating,” Marisa said. “That you do all of this to a family, to women, your fellow citizens. And it was ‘a little rough?’ You literally traumatized me and my daughters for life. We’re going to have to go get help or get over this somehow.”
Now, Marisa said she and her family have, quite literally, nothing. Marisa’s husband wasn’t even around to help, seeing as he had stayed back in Maryland for a few extra weeks and had planned to join them this weekend.
“I said, ‘When are we going to get our stuff back?’ They said it could be days or it could be months,” Marisa said.
Marisa said she’s now left with nothing but questions.
“What if I would have been armed?” she said. “You’re breaking in. What am I supposed to think? My initial thought was we were being robbed that my daughters, being females, were being kidnapped. You have guns pointed in our faces. Can you just reprogram yourself and see us as humans, as women? A little bit of mercy. Care a little bit about your fellow human, about your fellow citizen, fellow resident. We bleed too. We work. We bleed just like anybody else bleeds. We’re scared. You could see our faces that we were terrified. What makes you so much more worthier of your peace? What makes you so much more worthier of protecting your children? What makes you so much more worthy of your citizenship? What makes you more worthy of safety? Of being given the right that they took from me to protect my daughters?”
FBI told affiliate it was not on scene
Marisa told KFOR the agents wouldn’t even leave her a business card, and gave her no instructions or contacts for reclaiming the items they confiscated.
Marisa told KFOR the U.S. Marshals Service and the FBI were involved in this raid. However, the U.S. Marshals Service has denied its involvement.
When reached for comment last week, a spokesperson for the FBI told KFOR it was assisting with the case and directed inquiries to Homeland Security. Late Tuesday, the FBI told KFOR it was not on the scene and again instructed KFOR to contact Homeland Security.
A spokesperson for Homeland Security said that they would look into the incident and get back, but have yet to follow up. As for Marisa’s phones, electronics and cash, they had no idea which agency was in possession of those belongings or how to get them back.
