A controversial U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer is back on duty, according to CBS News. The officer was initially relieved of his duties after a video showed him pushing a woman to the ground outside an immigration court in New York.
Two officials familiar with the matter told CBS that the officer was reinstated after a preliminary review.
Download the SAN app today to stay up-to-date with Unbiased. Straight Facts™.
Point phone camera here
The reinstatement comes despite an earlier statement from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). That statement condemned the officer’s conduct as “unacceptable” and announced that the officer had been relieved of duties pending an investigation.
In part, the statement read, “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 altercation
The incident involved an Ecuadorian woman confronting ICE officers as they detained her husband outside 26 Federal Plaza.
The woman and a young girl were seen holding onto a man as officers tried to detain him. An agent is then seen yanking the woman’s hair as officers separate the family.
In a subsequent exchange, an officer pushes the woman into a wall and onto the floor as her children watch.
The ICE officer is heard saying “adios” — or goodbye — several times during the altercation.
Following the incident, Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., said the woman and her children went to his office for safety.
In a statement to CBS, DHS said the woman and her husband were in the U.S. unlawfully and face deportation.
CBS requested a comment on the ICE officer returning to duty, but DHS didn’t address it. However, the department did issue a response calling the woman’s husband a “criminal illegal alien.”
“President Trump and Secretary Noem are not going to allow criminal illegal aliens to terrorize American citizens,” a DHS official told CBS. “If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, we will arrest you and you will never return.”
The man had been arrested in June for “assault and criminal obstruction of breathing or blood circulation,” according to CBS, but the wife has no known criminal history.
Location of the incident
The location where the incident occurred has drawn some attention in the past. As SAN previously reported, the multi-agency facility is home to immigration court and ICE’s New York Field Office.
It has seen hundreds of arrests this year, and advocates have criticized the detentions that occur during court appearances at the facility. Critics cite overcrowded holding areas and hallway encounters that have sometimes turned volatile.
Following the incident, protesters gathered at Foley Square to demand an end to courthouse arrests and greater accountability for federal officers.
