The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who was seen on video shoving a detainee’s wife into a wall after a tussle with her family has been relieved of his duties, the Department of Homeland Security said Friday, calling the officer’s conduct “unacceptable.”
The woman and her children had been at 26 Federal Plaza, where her husband had just attended an immigration hearing. The husband is seen standing with his family, holding his daughter’s hand, when ICE agents tell him he’s being detained and to let go of the girl, according to a widely-circulated video.
“The officer’s conduct in this video is unacceptable and beneath the men and women of ICE,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “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.”
ICE didn’t immediately respond to questions about the man’s detention.
Video of the confrontation starts in the hallway, with ICE agents separating the family. The man’s wife, Monica Elizabeth Moreta, tries to get ICE agents to take her and her daughter, too. They refuse.
The man is heard pleading, “I didn’t do anything wrong,” as he is taken away. Video a short time later shows the woman getting into a scuffle with the ICE agents. At times, she yells, “Let me go!” as her daughter stands nearby. Then an agent in a plaid shirt and baseball cap is seen lifting her and carrying her to a room.
The children are ushered in, while their mother repeatedly yells, “No.” The door is then slammed closed, blocking the cameras.
It’s unclear what happens after the woman is carried into the room.
The video then cuts to the wife and that same plaid-shirted agent, now standing near an elevator bank. He repeatedly yells, “Bye!” as she tries to talk to him. At one point, the woman says, “My hair was pulled. You don’t care about anything.”
Suddenly, the agent lashes out, shoving the woman backwards, into a wall, and down onto the floor, then yells at her while she is on the ground. He yells for people to get her out of the building.
Moreta says she went to the hospital afterward for evaluation. Later, she told reporters she came to the U.S. after being “nearly killed” in her home country and had to go into hiding. Moreta says she thought her family would be protected in America.
At an ICE protest Thursday night, City Comptroller and activist Brad Lander says he was in 26 Federal Plaza, which houses the New York immigration court and an ICE processing site, when the incident happened but he didn’t witness it. Lander says seeing the video is enough.
“We are here in non-violent, non-cooperation to what ICE is doing, but every day there’s violence in that building being perpetrated by ICE agents,” Lander said. “Whatever your point of view on immigration, watch that video.”
Video from the incident also shows another agent moments earlier shoving a press photographer.