Video shows ICE officers shove journalists to the floor at 26 Federal Plaza in NYC, 1 hospitalized
ICE officers were caught on video shoving journalists to the floor at 26 Federal Plaza Tuesday. One of the journalists was hospitalized.
It comes less than a week after video of a separate shoving incident at the ICE facility went viral. In that incident, a woman was shoved to the floor by an ICE officer who was initially relieved of his duties and then put back on the job.
Ever since federal immigration agents began routinely detaining immigrants at their asylum hearings back in spring, credentialed members of the press have been at 26 Federal Plaza documenting it. They're typically allowed to be in the hallways, but Tuesday they were pushed from the elevator.
Confrontation caught on camera
Video shows what led up to Tuesday's incident.
In the video, two women can be seen entering an elevator, escorted by masked ICE personnel. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said those officers were "making the arrest of an illegal alien from Peru."
Another man entered the elevator with them, with photographers nearby but outside the elevator. At that point, a man wearing a mask and what appears to be a tactical vest with the word "police" on can be seen pulling him out of the elevator. Shouts of "Get out of the f****** elevator" can be heard.
Another man then appears to shove photojournalist Olga Fedorova back away from the elevator, and she sprawls into another photographer. Both wind up on the floor. People can be heard on video saying "Oh my God."
City Comptroller Brad Lander said the journalist who was ultimately hospitalized works for a Turkish media outlet and was on the ground for half an hour before being taken out of the building in a stretcher and put into an ambulance with a neck brace. There was no immediate word on his condition.
The FDNY said it was called to the location at around 10:30 a.m. for a report of an injury, and that one person was transported to the hospital.
Photojournalist speaks out after being shoved
Fedorova told CBS News New York documenting ICE arresting immigrants at their court hearings, as journalists are allowed to do and have done on a daily basis since the practice became routine under the Trump administration earlier this year.
"It's a public elevator. We take it every day," she said.
A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said in this case, "Officers repeatedly told the crowd of agitators and journalists to get back, move, and get out of the elevator."
Fedorova disputes that.
"There was no warning. There was a shout ... and it was immediately accompanied by shoving of my colleague," she said.
Fedorova says she believes the behavior of ICE officers at court has recently escalated.
"I think when there is no accountability, that's what happens. There's escalation," she said.
Department of Homeland Security on what happened Tuesday
A DHS official said that the incident took place when two officers were "swarmed by agitators and members of the press, which obstructed operations."
"Rioters and sanctuary politicians who encourage individuals to interfere with arrests are actively creating hostile environments that put officers, detainees and the public in harm's way," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin went on to point out the ICE facility at 26 Federal Plaza has previously been the target of a suspicious powder threat, among others. She also made reference to a shooting attack at an ICE facility in Dallas last week.
"Following last week's terrorist attack, we are particularly concerned with our officers' safety. Again, we are urging the media and politicians to stop fanning the flames of division and stop demonization of law enforcement," McLaughlin said.
"What the hell are we doing here?" Hochul asks
Gov. Kathy Hochul weighed in on the incident on social media.
"Masked ICE agents shoved and injured journalists today at Federal Plaza. One reporter left on a stretcher. This abuse of law-abiding immigrants and the reporters telling their stories must end. What the hell are we doing here?" Hochul wrote.
The incident caught the attention of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
"Donald Trump's Department of Homeland Security has been shamefully corrupted to focus more on bullying Americans than defending national security. Today a violent assault by masked agents at the 26 Federal Plaza facility in New York City ended with a journalist carried away on a stretcher–his only crime being attempting to document an ICE arrest. This is just the latest outrage in a string of documented violence against law-abiding people exercising their rights," Jeffries said. "Americans cannot and should not tolerate unaccountable masked secret police. These agents need to be identified by DHS and held accountable to the fullest extent of the law."
"If these attacks happen on the sidewalk outside 26 Federal Plaza, the perpetrators would be arrested for assault. But behind their face masks and locked doors, these federal agents believe they are accountable to no one – and they will attack anyone trying to show the world the reality. The NYPD should explore any ability they have to stop these repeat offenders committing violence in our city," Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said about Tuesday's incident.
"The Trump administration is working to create an 'other' that includes immigrants, the media, progressives – anyone who they feel stands in their way – to give themselves permission for state-sanctioned violence. We have to oppose these efforts with every tool available, with every person of good conscience, with all that we can give," Williams continued.
"Another violent attack by an ICE officer on a civilian at 26 Federal Plaza - this time on a journalist, who had to be carried out on a stretcher. Another attack on the First Amendment, our neighbors, and our democracy," New York City Comptroller Brad Lander posted on social media.
"Five days ago, an ICE agent shoved a woman asking questions about the detention of her husband. Today they attacked journalists," Democrat mayoral candidate and current frontrunner Zohran Mamdani said. "We cannot accept or normalize what has now become routine violence at 26 Federal Plaza. It has no place in our city."
Second shoving incident at 26 Federal Plaza in a week
It comes on the heels of a viral video of an ICE officer shoving a woman to the floor in a hallway at 26 Federal Plaza as she tearfully pleads with him after her husband was detained at his hearing. That officer was initially relieved of his duties Friday, with an ICE spokesperson saying in a statement his conduct was "unacceptable and beneath the men and women of ICE." That same officer returned to active duty Monday.
"So apparently they've decided that violent assault is not beneath the ICE officers," Lander said.
"There is no incident that should call for this level of violence against people who are witnessing the cruelty of the Trump administration's mass deportation agenda," said Murad Awawdeh of the New York Immigration Coalition. "And every single person deserves dignity and respect. And what we're seeing is that ICE continues to operate in this rogue fashion where they think they are above the law."