Andrea Martinez is an immigration attorney in Kansas City, Missouri. In June 2018, she was allegedly assaulted by an ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agent and locked up after dropping off a 3-year-old child to be deported.

Martinez is a graduate of John Brown University, magna cum laude, class of 2004. She graduated from American University Washington College of Law in 2007. During law school Andrea served as a summer law clerk to six immigration judges at the Arlington Immigration Court.

Martinez’s work covers most aspects of immigration law, from family-based visas and naturalization to immigration court removal defense and humanitarian visas.

Prior to entering private practice, Martinez served as a federal judicial law clerk to the Honorable Eric G. Bruggink at the U.S.

Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C.

She also worked for nine months in Guatemala assisting in the prosecution of child sex offenders with non-profit organization International Justice Mission.

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In June 2018, an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent allegedly broke Martinez’s foot and locked her in a room while she was dropping off a 3-year-old undocumented immigrant at an ICE facility to be reunited with his mother before they were to be deported to Honduras.

Andrea Martinez spoke about the assault in an interview with The Daily Beast. She started her day by dropping off a 3-year-old immigrant at an ICE facility to be reunited with his mother before they are to be deported to Honduras. Martinez said she was accompanying the boy, his pregnant mother, and his mother’s boyfriend—all of whom are undocumented—into an ICE field office, but Martinez was denied access. That’s when Martinez said she was “knocked to the ground and bloodied” by an ICE officer.

A few dozen activists had accompanied Martinez and her law partner, Megan Galicia, to orotest the deportations. Initially, Martinez said she thought the boy would be reunited with his mother in the parking lot of the ICE office. Instead, ICE officials decided to reunite them inside the building, away from protesters and cameras, according to Martinez.

Martinez said that is when she and Galicia tried to follow their 3-year-old client into the room in the building where he would be reunited with his mother.

An ICE officer blocked them from going inside, she said.

“He slammed the door on us,” Martinez said.

“The ICE officer pushed us out and didn’t let us follow our three-year-old client into the lobby, and then pushed me to the ground.

I was wearing high heels, so that’s when my foot was fractured and my leg got all bloody.

And then my pants ripped.

But then he called me back in and detained me for another forty minutes or an hour.”

“He locked me in an office where I couldn’t get out and he didn’t let me call 9-1-1 or use the phone or anything,” Martinez continued.

“And I told him, ‘I’m bleeding, I’m bleeding, can you at least get me a first aid kit?’ And he said, ‘No, it’s not severe enough.’ And then my foot started swelling.”

Martinez said she was taken to the emergency room on a stretcher.

The woman’s partner, Luis, was subsequently detained, Martinez said.

“They still have Luis detained, which is a big concern because they had told us yesterday that they were not going to be detaining Luis,” she added.

Martinez said they have put Luis into removal proceedings.

Martinez’s law partner, Galicia, called the events surreal.

“It was traumatic, but we’re doing OK, and Andrea got the medical attention she needed,” she added.