Over the course of the year, there have been a painful number of ugly incidents involving federal immigration officers and members of the public, but a clash in New York City last week captured more public attention than most, and for good reason.
I was back at 26 Federal Plaza today, where an ICE agent violently threw this bereft woman to the ground in front of her kids. She had not touched him. She did not pose any threat. She had to be taken to the hospital. (🎥: Elias Eliahu)
— Brad Lander (@bradlander.bsky.social) 2025-09-25T18:03:27.358Z
In an altercation captured on video, an ICE agent shoved a woman to the floor in front of her children after her husband had been arrested at an immigration courthouse. She was unarmed and did not appear to be a threat, but the immigration official pushed her hard enough that she had to be taken to a local hospital.
What made the story even more extraordinary, however, was that ICE made no effort to defend what transpired. On the contrary, the Department of Homeland Security announced on Friday that the officer in question had been “relieved of his duties.”
“The officer’s conduct in this video is unacceptable and beneath the men and women of ICE,” a DHS spokesperson said. “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 response offered an assurance to the public that there were still some limits on what federal agents can expect to get away with. Those assurances, however, apparently came with a short expiration date. CBS News reported: An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who was initially relieved of his duties after being captured on video pushing a woman to the ground outside an immigration court in New York City has been returned to duty, two U.S. officials familiar with the matter told CBS News. The officials, who requested anonymity to discuss an internal move that has not been publicly announced, said the ICE officer was placed back on duty after a preliminary review of the incident. The CBS report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC, characterized the developments as “a striking about-face,” which seems more than fair under the circumstances. What’s more, if CBS’s reporting is correct, it sends an unmistakable signal to the public: While ICE seemed to make clear on Friday that some lines agents could not cross, his reinstatement reinforces fears that no such lines exist.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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