JUST?ICE - Part VII
the alligator
There was a moment earlier this fall where I thought some semblance of justice had peeked through the 2025 karmic clouds.
An ICE agent I’d encountered frequently, the first “undercover” ICE agent I’d ever sat next to on a courtroom bench before he detained a friend I was accompanying, had been filmed grabbing a distraught Ecuadorian immigrant woman by the hair and violently pushing her to the ground, sending her to the hospital after detaining her husband in front of their children.
“Our ICE law enforcement are held to the highest professional standards ..”
Violence during detainments is a common sight – I experienced his particular brand of violence first hand, getting in between him and an unaccompanied minor he unjustly detained and was later forced to release.
The agent was later identified by Migrant Insider, but we continued to call him “Alligator”, the nickname given to him for his ferocity and leather like skin.
His victim wasn't a detainee this time however. She was the wife of one, pleading to be taken with him along with her children as to not be separated. The brutality in the face of such primal terror was on full display in front of a gaggle of press, surely the moment could not be ignored this time. So I thought.
The video made national news.
The DHS assistant secretary and spokeswoman was forced to relieve him of duty and make a statement calling the action “unacceptable and beneath the men and women of ICE”. She continued, “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”.
It didn’t even last a work week.
Emboldened, the ICE machine rolled on.
Just a couple days later, doubling down on their national platform of fear, he was reinstated.
The statement from the DHS assistant secretary was deleted from all public channels – A stark reminder that, violence against immigrants isn’t a bug, it’s a feature - even in a federal courthouse during legal proceedings.
NYC Comptroller Brad Lander, himself detained by ICE in front of a courtroom I was in earlier this year, and Congressman Dan Goldman wrote a sternly worded letter to the DHS director after calling to prosecute the ICE agent for a felony.
“As one might fear from this precedent, it now appears that decision has been viewed by multiple rank and file ICE officers stationed at 26 Federal Plaza as license to escalate the use of violence against unarmed bystanders,” they wrote, all too accurately.
Newly emboldened, the ICE machine rolled on. Just a couple days later a Turkish reporter was hospitalized after ICE shoved reporters and photographers into each other hitting the back of his head against the courthouse floor – just like the immigrant wife before him.
False hope. No reprieve. No justice.
Pushing on.
I had stopped writing about my courthouse experiences after this.
ICE’s brutality was well known by now – the whole country had gotten to see the Alligator do his work, unmasked even, for all to see. Concern grew but nothing changed.
In spite of everything, they stayed determined to do things the right way - even if the country they ostensibly escaped to for asylum had long stopped doing the same.
ICE kept cracking down as their numbers swelled with ads on Instagram, Google and Spotify.
But I didn’t stop going. Personal cameras were now strictly banned in the courthouse hallways, with more journalists and press photographers coming everyday. It was well covered.
Remarkably, asylum seekers kept going to their court hearings, even with ICE violence on every front page and forwarded instagram reel. In spite of everything, they stayed determined to do things the right way - even if the country they ostensibly escaped to for asylum had long stopped doing the same. Showing up in person to to face this broken system was a testament to their decency and resilience.
I accompanied a husband and wife hugging each other goodbye outside the courthouse, perhaps for the last time. I accompanied an older single father who relied on his 13 year old son to handle everything on his smartphone, doing his very best to be stoic in front of him while signing an emergency contact form with a trembling hand.
DHS kept changing tactics, now “preterminating” asylum seekers second court appearances instead of moving for dismissals like at the start of the summer. The government shutdown later in the fall was a small reprieve in the courthouse hallways, with less ICE presence due to the uncertainty of getting paid for their services.
But the city fought on. New York City remains steadfast against ICE.
in October, ICE tried a high visibility show of force on Canal Street, blocks from my home. With military vehicles in broad daylight - It was not well received.
Last week ICE tried again, less visibly, all dressed in NYPD colors in a half assed attempt to blend in, but in no less force.
Again it was not well received.
New Yorkers surrounded them and the planned raid on Chinatown was stopped -for now.
After a long year of federal overreach, first within our courthouses and now spilling onto our streets, NYC still came together. No fear. No fatigue.
It inspired me to write again, a semblance of agency in a time where any already illusory sense of control over what’s been happening has been fleeting.
There’s still more to say. There’s still more to do.
