US Rep. Dan Goldman said late on Wednesday afternoon that four of the people arrested during Tuesday’s ICE raid in Chinatown were American citizens who were held overnight at 26 Federal Plaza.
Goldman fumed as he once again stood outside of the immigration facility late Wednesday afternoon, charging that he believes the viral, violent federal raid that amNewYork reported on was designed by President Trump to sow the seeds of chaos in advance of eventually sending military personnel into the Big Apple.
“It is purely a pretext to incite violence, so that this administration can then say that it needs to bring in the military to stop violence that they have created,” Goldman charged. “This is not how you conduct an operation designed to be targeted at criminal undocumented immigrants.”
During the now infamous raid, passing New Yorkers became enraged at the sight of vendors being taken away in cuffs by masked men and confronted them, leading to people being shoved to the ground and narrowly missing oncoming traffic.
Amidst the mayhem, four American citizens were arrested by federal agents and taken back to 26 Federal Plaza in cuffs, where they were held overnight before being released just prior to Goldman speaking out.
“There is no circumstance when four American citizens should be arrested for no reason, because they were released today without any charges. There was no basis. ICE is not allowed to arrest American citizens,” Goldman said. “They spent the night in 26 Federal Plaza in detention, immigration detention, American citizens for nothing. No charges, nothing. This is an abuse of power, and it must stop.”
Goldman’s statements would appear to indicate potential constitutional violations by ICE of the arrested citizens’ right to due process of law, specifically as outlined in the 14th Amendment.
As ICE activity spills out of the courtroom and onto the streets, the Congress member said he is looking to create a task force to respond to these incidents in real time. However, he noted that this is still in the brainstorming stage and has yet to develop a comprehensive plan.
“My office is working together with other advocates and overlapping elected officials to set up a rapid response task force to coordinate and make sure that no New Yorkers suffer from excessive force, violence, and abuse. If you are going to come here and pretend to act as a federal official, then you’d better act according to the law,” he said.
Goldman noted that he previously worked as a lawyer for a decade “with ICE agents, Department of Homeland Security agents … prosecuting real criminals.”
“This is not how they ordinarily behaved. This is coming from the top down with instructions to cause chaos and violence. What we need right now, from the top down, and I’m talking to you, [acting ICE] Director [Todd] Lyons, tell your agents to cool it,” Goldman said.
