On a Saturday in early October, Marimar Martinez, a 30-year-old teacher and American citizen, was driving her car when she noticed federal immigration agents in her Chicago neighborhood. She began following them, as did the driver of another car. She honked her horn and shouted “la migra” to warn her neighbors that immigration agents were nearby.
As she drove alongside a Chevy Tahoe driven by Border Patrol agents, the vehicles made contact — who swerved into whom is a point of dispute. Martinez then began to drive away. A Border Patrol agent fired at her five times.
The Department of Homeland Security quickly alleged Martinez had “rammed” the Border Patrol vehicle. “This woman — who, by the way, is a Montessori school teacher with no criminal history — she’s now, all of a sudden, a ‘domestic terrorist,'” her attorney, Chris Parente, told NPR. “This is before there’s any investigation done.”
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