Don't worry my love, I'm OK" - her last words before they took her away without explanation
The cell phone video is chilling. Federal agents surround a car, demanding the driver step out. When she asks to see a warrant, an agent coldly responds, "I do not need to show you the warrant." Seconds later, they shatter her window and forcibly remove her from the vehicle while her teenage daughter screams in terror.
This isn't a scene from a dystopian movie. It happened on March 31 in Westminster, Maryland, to 52-year-old Elsy Noemi Berrios as she drove to work with her 18-year-old daughter Karen Cruz Berrios.
The Department of Homeland Security claims Noemi Berrios is "an associate of the vicious MS-13 gang." But nearly two weeks after taking her into custody, they've provided zero evidence to support this allegation – not to the public, not to the press, and according to her attorneys, not even to her legal team.
Her daughter is fighting back, sharing the disturbing footage and challenging the government's claims about her mother.
"She doesn't have any criminal record, and she does everything right," Cruz Berrios told CNN. "She is a good mom because she raised me and my other three siblings by herself. She did everything she could for us."
A CNN search of public records confirms Noemi Berrios has no criminal history whatsoever.
The single mother from El Salvador works at a custom clothing manufacturer and was granted work authorization as part of her asylum petition process. Her removal proceedings were dismissed in 2023, according to her attorneys, and her work authorization was recently renewed.
This case has sent shockwaves through Maryland's Salvadoran community, coming just weeks after another high-profile incident where Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a father of three, was deported to El Salvador's notorious high-security CECOT prison in what the Trump administration later called an "administrative error." Like Noemi Berrios, he was accused of MS-13 ties without evidence being presented.
"We know that when Salvadorans were first coming here, that was the number one argument used against us. That we were all MS-13. That we were all part of some gang," said Jorge Benitez Perez, an immigration activist who helped establish sanctuary protections in Prince George's County.
Even Maryland Governor Wes Moore's office is demanding answers, urging "the federal government to let this family know the basis for the arrest, and investigate the tactics used in this incident to ensure it complies with all relevant laws, policies, and court orders."
Noemi Berrios remains detained at an ICE processing center in rural Pennsylvania while her attorneys prepare for a bond hearing scheduled for Monday. They hope to secure her release and force the government to produce any evidence supporting their claims.
As for her daughter, the fight continues. Her haunting video and her mother's final words before being taken away – "Don't worry my love, I'm OK" – have become a rallying cry for those questioning the tactics and transparency of immigration enforcement.
While the legal battle unfolds, a desperate daughter waits, hoping to reunite with her mother and discover what, if any, evidence exists behind the serious allegations that led to that shattered car window on an otherwise ordinary March morning.
