A photojournalist on assignment at 26 Federal Plaza was hospitalized Tuesday following a chaotic incident with federal immigration enforcement agents, according to video footage and witnesses who spoke to the Daily News.
Footage taken by freelance photojournalist Stephanie Keith shows wild scenes on the 12th floor of the federal building in lower Manhattan, where members of the city’s press corps have been stationed daily to document the detention of hundreds of people attending hearings in immigration court amid Trump’s escalating crackdown.
The video shows a group of agents in masks, balaclavas, and bulletproof vests walking into an elevator with two women, who witnesses said had just left a hearing but had not been detained, as a photojournalist for amNewYork, Dean Moses, follows with his camera. Agents then grabbed him and shoved him out.
“Get out the f—ing elevator!” one agent is heard shouting in the footage.
Freelance journalist Olga Fedorova begins to document the scene from just outside the elevator’s entrance when an agent appears to forcefully shove her to the ground.
L. Vural Elibol, a photographer for the Anadolu Agency, positioned behind Fedorova, is then knocked back and appears to hit his head on the floor. Photojournalists who were present identified him to The News as the person taken to the hospital. Scenes later captured by Keith show him in a neck brace after being loaded onto a stretcher when medics arrived.
An FDNY representative confirmed EMTs responded to the location around 10:30 a.m. and transported one person to Downtown Hospital. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security declined to immediately comment when reached by The News.
Fedorova and Elibol could not immediately be reached. The News reached out to representatives for the Anadolu Agency for comment.
“This is a public elevator, they didn’t make any announcement they were taking her,” Moses told The News Tuesday.
“They pushed me off, and as another guy pulled me from behind, I hear the other [journalists] fall,” he continued. “I just heard the resounding thud as they hit the floor.”
The incident marks the latest in a string of controversies to play out at the scandal-plagued federal facility, including an incident last week captured in widely circulated scenes of ICE agents forcefully shoving a young woman to the floor, resulting in an agent’s brief suspension.
More than a dozen local officials were arrested at the building earlier this month after trying to inspect the building’s 10th floor, where immigrants are initially detained. The holding area is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit in Manhattan Federal Court, in which a judge recently ordered DHS to improve reportedly inhumane conditions.
DHS has also refused to allow members of Congress access to the 10th floor.
“Donald Trump’s ICE in action: Just days after one officer was disciplined for slamming a detainee’s wife to the ground, masked agents are now assaulting journalists and even sending one to the hospital. This is a direct attack on our First Amendment, our right to a free press, and should not happen in a democracy. Every officer involved must be held accountable without delay,” Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-Manhattan) said in a statement on X Tuesday in response to Keith’s video.
Hundreds of people turning up to court-mandated hearings for asylum applications and other immigration proceedings have been detained at the lower Manhattan complex amid the Trump administration’s ramping up its mass deportation agenda.
Masked and armed agents have been routinely grabbing people as they walk out of courtrooms, including many people who had moments earlier been told they were safe in the country for the time being by immigration judges.
The approach has led to accusations that the federal government is targeting people following the law as low-hanging fruit, despite Trump’s claims that they are targeting criminals.
Immigration judges, lawyers for the DHS, and ICE agents are all part of the executive branch, meaning they ultimately answer to Trump.
Keith, who has been documenting the scene at 26 Federal Plaza daily, said she had not witnessed that sort of aggression towards media members from federal agents until Tuesday morning.
“This is definitely the most egregious example for sure,” she said. “I’ve never seen them be that violent with the press … Normally, they do yell at us a lot, but they don’t put their hands on us.”
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