A Brentwood woman with five children is in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and facing deportation to El Salvador — a country she fled nearly a decade ago after gang members there killed her husband — according to her attorney and relatives.

ICE agents detained Nuvia Yessenia Martinez Ventura last week in Manhattan when she reported for a check-in, said her attorney, Ala Amoachi, on Monday. Martinez Ventura, who has been seeking political asylum, was set to be transferred Monday — her 30th birthday — to Houston.

She has lived in the United States since 2016 and has no criminal record, Amoachi said, adding that her client's only civil offense is being here illegally.

Three of her children, ages 3, 4 and 7, were born here and are U.S. citizens, Amoachi said. The other two, ages 10 and 11, have legal status because they are juveniles and their father had been killed, Amoachi said.

Two of the children are autistic. The 11-year-old has Type 1 diabetes and landed in the hospital on Saturday because his mother, who manages his medical treatment at home, wasn't there to inject his insulin, the lawyer said. Other relatives are scrambling to take care of the children, who often cry because they don’t know where their mother is, Amoachi said.

"It’s absolutely outrageous," she said. "I am just astonished by the cruelty of the way that she’s been treated."

ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

Amoachi said Martinez Ventura has been denied her constitutional right to communicate with her attorney. The two have not spoken since ICE detained Martinez Ventura, Amoachi said.

Martinez Ventura's arrest contradicts President Donald Trump’s contention that his mass deportation program is aimed mainly at violent criminals, Amoachi said. In this case, it is the opposite: A devoted mother whose family were victims of violent criminals is being sent back to where the crime occurred, she said.

"They just consider immigrants criminals in general," Amoachi said, referring to the Trump administration.

Trump contends illegal immigration is out of control and that many of the migrants are dangerous criminals.

Martinez Ventura’s arrest and separation from her children also comes amid an escalation over the past two weeks of Trump’s crackdown on people living in the country illegally. Stephen Miller, deputy White House chief of staff, said in late May he wanted immigration agents to boost arrests from about 600 a day to at least 3,000 a day.

Since then, protests have erupted across the country, including in Los Angeles, where Trump has ordered 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines to the city.

Martinez Ventura’s children know nothing about why their mother vanished — only that she hasn’t been home for days, relatives said. One of Martinez Ventura's sons has been searching the rooms of their house looking for her, according to two of her siblings, who also live on Long Island.

"We never expected this," Martinez Ventura’s sister said in Spanish in an interview. "When we got this news, it broke our hearts for her children. It feels ugly, especially the first day when her kids came home from school and they didn’t see her there."

"I tell them that ‘Your mother is doing something and very soon God will return her,’ ” the sister said.

Martinez Ventura’s brother said: "It is an injustice what they are doing with her. ... She came to this country to seek refuge" after the gangs killed her husband.

The brother and sister requested anonymity out of fear of repercussions due to their immigration status.

Martinez Ventura had been checking in regularly with ICE as required but then, to the surprise of everyone, including her attorney, was arrested last Wednesday, Amoachi said. Martinez Ventura had been hoping to reopen her asylum case. It was denied several years ago, in part because her attorney at the time did not follow proper procedure, Amoachi said.

Martinez Ventura and her husband fled El Salvador after he received threats from the gangs and went to Panama, Amoachi said. But they were deported back to El Salvador, where the gangs shot her husband to death, she said.

While in ICE detention, Martinez Ventura, who suffers from high cholesterol and high blood pressure, has not been receiving the medicine she needs, the attorney said, adding that Martinez Ventura told relatives she receives only a cookie and a glass of water per day. She sleeps on a cold floor.

Her sister said she received two brief phone calls from Martinez Ventura.

"She tells me that she can’t take it anymore" and that "I miss my kids. I don’t want my kids to die."