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ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they\u2019re published.<\/p>\n
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has taken one of its agents off the streets after he was caught on video throwing a distraught mother to the floor of a New York City courthouse in front of her two children on Thursday.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t the first time videos have captured scenes of immigration agents using violent force to carry out the Trump administration\u2019s mass deportation campaign. But the videos of this incident \u2014 one of which I filmed for ProPublica \u2014 seemed to stir something different. In a rare move, the government publicly reprimanded an officer for such conduct.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe officer\u2019s conduct in this video is unacceptable and beneath the men and women of ICE,\u201d an assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, said. \u201cOur 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
A video filmed by Till Eckert shows the officer throwing Moreta-Galarza to the ground inside the courthouse.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019ve only been in the U.S. as a reporter for eight weeks \u2014 so I just barely arrived. I come from Germany and am on the staff at Correctiv, a nonprofit investigative newsroom. I\u2019d been alarmed by videos of masked ICE agents sweeping immigrants off the street, scenes I never thought I\u2019d see in the United States, and I came with the goal of witnessing what was going on for myself. I wanted to report on how the administration\u2019s immigration crackdown was playing out from the front lines.<\/p>\n Since arriving, I\u2019ve spent time reporting in immigrant neighborhoods, emergency rooms, churches, ICE field offices and, most recently, in the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan. I\u2019ve gone there most every morning for the past two weeks.<\/p>\n During that time, I\u2019d seen ICE drag several immigrants away from their families, all of them sobbing and pleading with the officers not to separate them from their loved ones.<\/p>\n But what happened Thursday was a shocking escalation.<\/p>\n When I emerged from the elevator on the 14th floor, I heard a woman\u2019s pleas. She sounded terrified. I walked around the corner to see what was happening. At the end of the hallway, I saw the woman, Monica Moreta-Galarza, standing in front of an agent. She was crying because her husband had been detained. She told the agent she was afraid her husband would be hurt. She wanted to go with him.<\/p>\n I began recording and captured the agent barking back at the woman. \u201cAdios,\u201d he said, over and over, pressing toward her as if warning her to back away. When she didn\u2019t, he grabbed her. The rest \u2014 including her children\u2019s screams \u2014 has been memorialized online.<\/p>\n The federal agent yells and waves his finger at Moreta-Galarza after throwing her to the ground.<\/span><\/p>\n I followed Moreta-Galarza to the hospital. She is an immigrant from Ecuador and has been living in Coney Island since last year. Speaking in Spanish, she said the government routinely beat people in her home country. \u201cI didn\u2019t think I\u2019d come here to the United States and the same thing would happen to me.\u201d<\/p>\n \n NIH Launches New Multimillion-Dollar Initiative to Reduce U.S. Stillbirth Rate<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n This morning, I went back to the courthouse with the goal of speaking to the agent who\u2019d tackled Moreta-Galarza. I\u2019d heard the other ICE agents call him Victor, though I can\u2019t be sure that\u2019s his real name. By the time I got there, however, he was gone.<\/p>\n ProPublica\u2019s mission is impact. I don\u2019t think any of us expected we\u2019d help bring it about with my video. The question now is what will the government do the next time something like this happens.<\/p>\n I asked DHS how many agents have been disciplined this year for misusing force. They did not answer that question.<\/p>\n If you have tips about new ICE enforcement tactics in courts, we want to hear from you. Reach out via Signal (tilleckert.90) or propublica.org\/tips.<\/p>\n
\n Credit: <\/span>
\n Till Eckert\/ProPublica. Edited for privacy by ProPublica.
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\n Credit: <\/span>
\n Graham Macindoe
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