A US immigration officer has been “relieved of his duties” and is under investigation after he pushed an Ecuadorian woman to the floor at an immigration courthouse in Manhattan.
The altercation took place Thursday at 26 Federal Plaza, the epicentre of US president Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in New York City. It was captured in videos that spread rapidly on social media.
The footage set off an outcry from city officials who denounced the behaviour of the officer, who has not been identified, and demanded that he be disciplined.
Videos show an officer pushing the woman, who was crying in a crowded hallway, shortly after federal agents arrested her husband, who had shown up at the courthouse for an asylum hearing.
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“The officer’s conduct in this video is unacceptable and beneath the men and women of ICE,” said Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, the agency that oversee US Immigration and Customs 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.”
The videos showed ICE agents arresting the man as his wife and young daughter clung to him and his son watched nearby.
After the agents pried the family apart and led the man away, the woman shouted, “You guys don’t care about anything” in Spanish at an agent. The agent told her, “Adios, adios”.
She put a hand on his chest and he shoved her. When she tried to grab onto him, he pushed her down.
The woman, identified by ProPublica as Monica Moreta-Galarza, was taken to hospital and discharged shortly after, according to the news outlet.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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