In an official announcement on Friday, September 26, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revealed that a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent has been relieved of his duties pending an investigation of a video that shows him violently shoving a woman to the ground.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin described the conduct captured in the video as "unacceptable and beneath the men and women of ICE."
McLaughlin stated, "Our ICE law enforcement are held to the highest professional standards, and this officer is being relieved of current duties as we conduct a full investigation."
The incident in question took place at a federal building in Lower Manhattan, and the video surfaced online on September 25.
According to CBS News reporter Camilo Montoya-Galvez, "The incident appears to have started when the woman and her young daughter desperately tried to cling to her husband, whom federal agents were attempting to take into custody. Agents were seen on video separating the family, with one of them grabbing the woman's hair. The man was ultimately detained."
Montoya-Galvez reports that "another video showed the woman confronting the ICE officer at the center of the investigation."
"He was then captured on camera shoving the woman and pushing her to the floor in front of her children and a crowd of photojournalists and federal and court officials," Montoya-Galvez explains. "During the altercation, the ICE officer is heard saying "adios" — or goodbye — several times. The woman in the videos told reporters Thursday her family is from Ecuador."
CBS News asked a former ICE official, who was interviewed on condition of anonymity, if there is any justification for the officer's actions — and the interviewee responded, "Absolutely none."
The ex-ICE official told CBS News, "He clearly lost his cool. Unless you claim self-defense or defense of others, (there's) no way that use of force is justified. That's assault."
Read Camilo Montoya-Galvez's full article for CBS News at this link, and watch the video below:
I was back at 26 Federal Plaza today, where an ICE agent violently threw this bereft woman to the ground in front of her kids. She had not touched him. She did not pose any threat. She had to be taken to the hospital. (🎥: Elias Eliahu)
