NEW YORK (AP) — A federal immigration officer who shoved an Ecuadorian woman to the floor at a Manhattan court is “being relieved of current duties” following the “unacceptable” behavior, the Department of Homeland Security said Friday in a rare rebuke of one of its officers.
In videos of the altercation, the woman can be seen pleading with the officer after her husband was arrested. The officer is captured in images that spread quickly on social media pushing her through a group of photographers into a wall and then onto the floor in a crowded hallway.
“The officer’s conduct in this video is unacceptable and beneath the men and women of ICE,” said Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary at DHS, which oversees immigration enforcement.
“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,” she added.
It is extremely rare for the Trump administration’s DHS to discipline its immigration officers for aggressive tactics.
The altercation occurred Thursday at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, a government building that has become a local hotbed of the federal government’s immigration crackdown.
