ICE officer sparks outrage after harrowing footage shows him shoving mom to the floor
Topics: Immigration, New York, US News, Politics
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
Topics: Immigration, New York, US News, Politics
An ICE officer has sparked outrage after video footage shows him tackling a distressed woman to the floor.
The incident is said to have taken place earlier this week at the New York immigration courts. The woman in question was visibly emotional as her husband had just been detained.
The footage shows her speaking in Spanish to a plain-clothed ICE officer when he kept repeating 'adios' to her.
According to CBS News, the distressed wife said to the officer: "Please, take me, too. They are going to kill him. They pulled my hair. You guys don't care about anything."
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When she doesn't leave the officer proceeded to grab her and shove her against a wall before she tumbled to the ground in tears. Several people witnessed the ordeal and were clearly distressed, including the woman's two children.
The family are said to be from Ecuador.
After she was tackled, Democratic congressman Dan Goldman said that she and her kids 'fled' to his office 'for safety'.
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander has since spoken out on the ordeal and slammed the officer's actions.
"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," he penned on Bluesky alongside the video.
"She had not touched him. She did not pose any threat. She had to be taken to the hospital."
The Department of Homeland Security has also condemned what happened.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement, per NPR: "The officer's conduct in this video is unacceptable and beneath the men and women of ICE.
"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 federal officer has now been placed on leave while the incident is being investigated, the BBC reports.
UNILAD have approached ICE and DHS for additional comment on the matter.
More information about the woman who was tackled has since come to light, and she has been named as Monica Moreta-Galarza.
According to ProPublican the Ecuadorian came to the US with her family to seek asylum.
Speaking to reporters after the disturbing ordeal, she said: "Over [in Ecuador], they beat us there too. I didn’t think I’d come here to the United States and the same thing would happen to me."