An immigration arrest in Franklin Township is drawing controversy because witnesses say ICE agents left two underage kids unattended after arresting their father.

Agents arrested the undocumented worker last week as he was taking his 15-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter, both U.S. citizens, to school. The boy captured video of the arrest on his cellphone.

The family and immigration advocates are upset about what happened next. They say agents asked the boy to call a relative, but drove away before anyone arrived, leaving the two kids on the roadside. Because the boy is a minor, News 12 has agreed to not to identify the family.

“I think [the ICE agents] have no feelings because of how they left the car and the children there alone,” the mother says.

“I understand I'm 15 years old,” says the son. “I still don't think it's right to leave unattended minors.”

ICE policy states that minors should not be left unattended. According to a directive issued last year by the Department of Homeland Security, “ICE should remain on the scene… until the designated third party, or the local child welfare authority or law enforcement agency assumes physical custody of the minor child(ren).”

But this is not the first time that ICE has left a child unattended. Earlier this year, a 6-year-old girl was left alone in Morristown, after her father was arrested. And a review by CNN found that more than 100 U.S. citizen children were left stranded without their parents last year, due to ICE enforcement actions.

Brian Higgins, a former police chief who now works as a law enforcement analyst, says law enforcement directives from New Jersey’s Attorney General’s Office also prohibit leaving minors unattended.

“If anything happened to those children until an adult came by to care for them, those officers would have been responsible,” Higgins says.

News 12 reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment. A spokesperson said she could not find records of an arrest matching the incident.

Kane In Your Corner asked if the agency would be willing to speak generally about what it does to ensure kids are not left unattended. The agency did not respond.

For now, the father remains in custody, and the family says it does not plan to contest his arrest. Instead, they say they plan to self deport to Mexico, taking their children, both citizens, along with them.