FITCHBURG, Mass. – A Massachusetts man seen on video having an apparent seizure during a struggle with immigration agents as he holds his wife and crying toddler says he lost consciousness after agents pushed and hit him and pressed on his neck.

Department of Homeland Security officials accused him of faking the medical emergency to keep agents from arresting his wife, who was wanted for allegedly stabbing a co-worker with scissors.

“I wasn’t letting go of my wife because they wanted to take her away,” Carlos Zapata, 24, told The Boston Globe in Spanish. He spoke to the newspaper on Friday, a day after his wife was detained in a chaotic traffic stop.

Bystanders shouted and recorded the confrontation as Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers surrounded the family’s car Thursday

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