The men were on the roof when immigration agents arrived. In the first seconds of a livestream that has now been viewed millions of times, one of them can be heard in Spanish: “The damn law came down on us — we’re done for. They surrounded us — they surrounded us.”
By the end of the 30-minute video, the six Guatemalan workers had been detained. Their coworker Bryan Polanco, who filmed the entire encounter, pointed his camera at the homeowner and made the accusation that would turn a rooftop in Cambridge, Maryland, into a national story: she was the one who called ICE on the men fixing her house.
Then, according to footage from the scene, she handed agents the ladder they used to reach them.
“We Were Starting a Job, and Immigration Showed Up”
The entire incident was livestreamed for roughly 30 minutes by Bryan Polanco, who has been identified in multiple reports as a Dominican national with permanent U.S. residency and a member of the same roofing crew. Polanco was not detained. His coworkers weren’t as lucky.
Homeowner waits until construction job is nearly finished, then calls ICE on 6 workers she allegedly owes $10,000 to, she even helps agents detain them. pic.twitter.com/jEM9Xw2ZCL
— Daily Loud (@DailyLoud) March 26, 2026
Polanco can be heard calmly asserting his right to film while cooperating with agents. “I have every right to record,” he tells an officer. “I’m not doing anything wrong either.”
The six detained workers were between 18 and 40 years old, according to a Univision DC report. The roofing company involved has not publicly commented on the incident.
“Instead of Going After the Criminals, They Come After the People Who Work”
What turned a local ICE detention into a viral story was the allegation at the center of it: the homeowner reportedly called immigration authorities on the very workers she’d hired — timing the call to land right as they were about to finish a job she still owed them $10,000 for.
“We were starting a job and immigration showed up,” Polanco says in the livestream. “The truth is they’re hurting working people — people who do good for the country.”
He doesn’t hold back. “Instead of going after the criminals in the streets, the drug addicts — they come after the people who work.”
Polanco later told Univision DC that the homeowner made her position clear even beyond the call itself: “What she did tell me, and I told one of the other guys, is that if immigrants come back again to finish the project, she’s always going to call ICE.”
When agents left with the six men, their work van remained behind — doors wide open, thousands of dollars in tools inside. No one secured it.
“That’s the Same Woman — Still With Hatred in Her Heart”
Near the end of the livestream, Polanco turns the camera toward the homeowner’s property. She’s outside, tidying up around the house — the same house the detained men had just been repairing.
“That’s the same woman,” Polanco says. “We came to fix this lady’s house, and she’s the one who turned us in. Fixing up her house and still with hatred in her heart.”
He pauses before adding quietly: “It’s sad, but at the same time, everything has its purpose.”
A Legal Expert Says Maryland Law May Not Be on Her Side
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, responded to the viral footage with a legal observation. If the allegations are true, the homeowner’s actions could constitute a felony under Maryland’s Criminal Law Code.
The relevant statute specifically prohibits obtaining labor or services through the threatened or actual use of reporting someone’s immigration status to authorities. In other words, Maryland law specifically covers this — hiring workers, then threatening deportation to avoid paying them.
“While the facts aren’t fully in yet,” Reichlin-Melnick wrote, “if the allegation is true, it seems that this would be a felony under Maryland law.”
The Ladder
Of all the details circulating from the Cambridge footage, one keeps resurfacing: the ladder.
ICE agents needed to reach the workers still positioned on the roof. In the footage, the homeowner appears to provide the ladder herself — the same person who hired the men to repair her home, physically handing federal agents the tool they used to detain them.
As of Thursday, ICE has not publicly commented on the incident. The homeowner has not been identified or charged. Polanco’s livestream continues to circulate across platforms, where it has been viewed millions of times.
The roof, presumably, still needs finishing.