A federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent has been relieved of his duties after he was recorded shoving a hysterical woman onto the floor during a clash inside 26 Federal Plaza in lower Manhattan, officials said Friday.
Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin confirmed the move, saying the conduct seen in the video was “unacceptable and beneath the men and women of ICE.”
“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,” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin did not name the ICE agent.
The woman, whose husband was being detained by ICE, was pleading with the agent in Spanish on Thursday, begging him not to take her husband away, videos of the exchange show.
The agent keeps telling her “Adios!” before he suddenly grabs her and shoves her toward a wall in front of a group of reporters and advocates. He then shoves her to the ground.
The woman’s two crying children surround their mother as the ICE agent orders his colleagues to remove her from the building.
The mom, identified by ProPublica as Monica Moreta-Galarza, was briefly hospitalized. She told ProPublica that she was seeking asylum for her family when she was attacked.
“Over [in Ecuador], they beat us there, too,” she said in Spanish. “I didn’t think I’d come here to the United States and the same thing would happen to me.”
Videos of the attack were shared on social media, generating sharp criticism across the city.
City Comptroller Brad Lander, who has been arrested twice by ICE for refusing to leave 26 Federal Plaza, was one of many elected officials and immigration advocates who posted the 41-second clip of the incident on X.
“She had not touched him. She did not pose any threat,” Lander wrote. “She had to be taken to the hospital.”
On Friday, Lander said that he was “grateful” that steps were taken to sideline the ICE agent.
“When we insistently bear witness, there are limits to the cruelty people will support. Even Trump’s ICE can’t escape that indefinitely,” Lander wrote. “But let’s be clear: Lawless action by ICE agents is taking place every day. Ms. Moreta-Galarza’s husband had just been abducted. They are still separated — like many thousands more families.”
Also on Friday, Rep. Dan Goldman and Lander referred the ICE agent in question to U.S Attorney General Pam Bondi and Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District, for felony prosecution.
“Across the country, ICE agents — often masked and unidentified — are lying in wait outside immigration courts to snatch law-abiding, nonviolent immigrants going through our immigration system the proper way,” Goldman said. “Yesterday, during one of these arrests, an ICE agent violently assaulted a woman in front of her two children.”
The two pols said the ICE officer, acting “under the color of law,” used excessive physical force by throwing the young mom to the ground, depriving her of her Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.
On Sept. 18, Lander and 10 other local elected officials were arrested at 26 Federal Plaza after attempting to inspect the reportedly inhumane conditions in which migrants are being detained there.
The politicians were arrested after demanding access to the 10th-floor holding area where hundreds of migrants have been detained by ICE agents after attending court hearings on adjacent floors.
In addition to Lander, the group included Assembly members Marcela Mitaynes, Emily Gallagher, Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, Claire Valdez, Tony Simone, Robert Carroll and Steven Raga and state Sens. Julia Salazar, Jabari Brisport and Gustavo Rivera.
Lander and the others arrested inside were issued federal summonses for misdemeanors alleging they blocked access to entrances, foyers and other areas, and ordered to appear in court on Nov. 18.
