A video showing a man being hauled away from a Virginia courthouse by a group of plainclothes men who refused to show ID or a warrant to his attorneys raises new questions about how federal immigration agents are operating.
Attorneys for the man, identified as Teodoro Dominguez-Rodriguez, originally of Honduras, said they had no official notification of where he had been taken following the April 22 incident. Federal records show that man of that name is now being held at the Farmville Detention Center in Virginia.
The April 22 incident bears similarities to legal detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in other states. The video has also shaken some immigrants who fled their own countries over fears of corrupt government agents or unchecked vigilantes.
Similar detentions captured on video have sparked concerns and condemnations, among them the March 8 detention of Columbia University student protest leader Mahmoud Khalil, the March 17 detention of Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University professor who was taken into custody by masked men, and the March 25 arrest of Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, who was surrounded by plainclothes people and bundled into a waiting vehicle.
Civil-rights experts say the actions by ICE raise concerns over accountability and due-process rights, in addition to creating an environment emboldening police impersonators or vigilantes. The Trump administration has prioritized immigration enforcement as it makes good on the president’s 2024 campaign promises.
A Florida woman was arrested April 21 after she was accused of impersonating an ICE agent to kidnap her ex-boyfriend’s wife. Police say the woman was wearing a t-shirt with “ICE” on it, while carrying a handheld radio.
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“If we start to have a society where people have to accept that that they are being taken into custody without any showing of authority, society is going break down. And they did not show that,” said Nicholas Reppucci, the chief public defender in Charlottesville, Virginia, whose office represents Dominguez-Rodriguez. “The lawyers asked to see an arrest warrant and to see identification and they didn’t get it.”
The ACLU has long complained that ICE agents disguise themselves while tracking down suspects, and sued the first Trump administration over it. It reached a settlement with the Biden administration over some kinds of traffic stops civil libertarians considered to be deceptive.
Ozturk’s attorney, Mahsa Khanbabai, encouraged Americans to watch the video of her client being detained by masked, plainclothes people who bundled her into an unmarked car.
“As you can see in the video, DHS agents grabbed at her clothes, her hands, and her backpack before detaining her and taking her to an unknown location, in an unmarked car,” Khanbabai said in a statement. “Nothing in this video indicates that these are law enforcement agents and from which agency. This video should shake everyone to their core.”
On April 24, the Trump administration acknowledged that its plainclothes agents lacked an arrest warrant when they detained Khalil in the lobby of his on-campus apartment building. Video of that incident show men in t-shirts and jeans or khaki pants taking him into custody while wearing metal badges on chains around their necks. Agents said they believed Khalil was a flight risk. He was intercepted returning to apartment, accompanied by his pregnant wife.
In Massachusetts, a New Bedford family whose car was surrounded by plainclothes agents refused to get out because the agents appeared to be searching for a different person and refused to show a warrant. An April 14 video captured by one of the people in the car shows armed men in ballistic vests with “police” patches on them smashing out the car’s window to reach the people inside.
Trump officials argue the aggressive enforcement is necessary because it’s targeting people who may have violent criminal histories. ICE has long advocated that local jail managers should alert them whenever they are releasing a person who may have been living in the United States without permission, allowing them to make detentions under controlled circumstances.
“Child molesters. Rapists. Murderers. These are just a few of the scumbags here illegally who we have arrested thanks to President Trump,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in an April 21 social media post. “President Trump and I have a clear message to those in our country illegally: LEAVE NOW. If you do not self-deport, we will hunt you down, arrest you, and deport you.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ICE detentions raise civil liberties fears over plainclothes agents
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