Gun-toting ICE agents allegedly forced their way into a Queens home last week without announcing themselves or presenting a warrant for a person who no longer lived there, the New York Immigration Coalition said Wednesday.
The nonprofit advocacy group stated that agents broke down the door of a family’s residence at a basement apartment in Elmhurst on Nov. 13. According to the organization, the agents pointed firearms at a mother and her four children and pulled the woman from her bed before threatening to return.
Video recorded by the mother and shared by the NYIC shows her pleading with the agents, telling them her baby is in bed with her as they move to take her from the room.
“I have my baby, no!” the woman is heard saying as agents stand in the doorway with a gun and a flashlight pointed at her face.
“Then I’m coming to get you by your baby,” an agent replies before entering the bedroom and removing the woman from the bed.
Additional security footage from outside the home leading up to the incident shows armed agents entering the basement unit. In one clip, a camera positioned in nearby bushes appears to catch the attention of an agent, who then turns the camera away.
Neighbors, believing a burglary was in progress, called the police, the coalition stated. Home security footage also shows NYPD officers responding to the scene.
Officers are seen pulling up alongside the agents on the sidewalk, speaking with them briefly before driving away. The NYPD did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Meanwhile, the individual whom ICE was searching for no longer lives at the address, according to NYIC.
Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of NYIC, condemned the incident, calling ICE “a rogue agency that is lawlessly terrorizing New Yorkers.”
“This mother of four was in her bedroom with her children when ICE violently knocked down her door, dragging her out of bed and pointing a gun at her family members,” Awawdeh said in a statement. “The family has been traumatized … the children are fearful of leaving their mother.”
The Department of Homeland Security has not yet responded to requests for comment.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
