The episode took place during a surge in immigration enforcement activity in Massachusetts to ramp up arrests of immigrants in the country without legal status, which the Department of Homeland Security has officially dubbed “Operation Patriot 2.0.” Advocates and community activists say that Immigration and Customs officials have been using increasingly forceful tactics to apprehend immigrants. Last week in Leominster, agents held a 5-year-old outside her parents’ home in an effort to coax her parents to turn themselves in, according to the family and videos of the incident.In New York City this week, an ICE agent aggressively pushed a mother from Ecuador to the floor of an immigration courthouse in front of her children, as she denounced the arrest of her husband. The family — Hilda Ramírez, Joseph, and another male family member — were accompanying an uncle of the children, Jose Ramírez-Perez, to a hearing in Chelsea District Court, when their vehicle was stopped by federal agents, Hilda Ramírez’s daughter, Michelle, 17, told the Globe in an interview. Jose Ramírez-Perez is facing four felony charges of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, according to Chelsea District Court records, and one charge of intimidating a witness, juror, court official or law enforcement officer. Two earlier charges of rape and abuse aggravated by age difference were dismissed in May, court records show.He was held at Suffolk County Jail and released earlier this year on certain bail conditions. The family told the Globe that he is innocent of the charges, and Ramírez-Perez has pleaded not guilty. The family says immigration agents detained him Friday.In a statement, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called the family’s characterization of the incident, which the Globe shared with DHS, “another hoax peddled by the media.”McLaughlin said that ICE was “targeting and successfully arrested Jose Ramírez-Perez” after conducting a targeted vehicle stop. Ramírez-Perez was in the country unlawfully and is from Guatemala, McLaughlin said. DHS alleged in the statement that the driver and passengers “tried to hide Ramírez-Perez from law enforcement by placing him on the floor of the vehicle,” but that ICE officers saw his ankle monitor.“This child rapist was RELEASED by local police because of sanctuary policies. We are not going to allow pedophiles to harm the most innocent in our country. ICE did not arrest anyone else except for this child predator,” McLaughlin said.In one video recorded by a witness, Hilda’s daughter Michelle runs up to the agents yelling and sobbing, pleading for them to let her mother and brother go, as the agents block her from approaching the scene. She had been waiting for her family at the courthouse nearby, and received a panicked call from her mother that they were being stopped by immigration agents, she said.“My brother has autism,” Michelle cries out, over and over, as she tries to push through the agents to get to her family. “She needs to back off,” an agent with a mask says. In the background, Michelle’s mother cries out in Spanish as agents hold her down to the ground: “My back hurts,” she says multiple times. Hilda, the mother, told the Globe that the agents broke the glass of at least two windows of her car. As they detained her, the agents twisted her wrists and put their feet on her back, where she has chronic pain, she said. Her head banged on the cement sidewalk as the agents took her to the ground. “I was yelling, ‘I need help,’ and nothing — it didn’t matter to them,’" Hilda said. DHS has repeatedly said in recent weeks that assaults against ICE officers are up 1,000 percent across the country. “Our officers used the appropriate amount of force necessary to make the arrest. This is a perfect example of how sanctuary politicians are putting the public and our law enforcement officers at risk,” McLaughlin said. “This arrest should have been conducted in a controlled safe transfer..” An ambulance was called for the mother, Hilda, who was eventually released from custody and was having trouble holding herself up. She could not walk, so she had to be placed on a gurney and was transported in an ambulance to the hospital, the family said. Hilda and Joseph spent hours in the hospital being evaluated.In a phone call from the hospital waiting room, Michelle said that she was trying to help her brother eat something, and though she was enduring heightened anxiety, the family was attempting to keep calm.“We are trying our best,” Michelle said. “It was a very traumatic experience.”Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio can be reached at giulia.mcdnr@globe.com. Follow her @giuliamcdnr.