An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shoved a woman into a wall and then pushed her to the ground at a New York City immigration courthouse has been “relieved of his current duties,” an ICE official said Friday, CNN reported.The incident, captured on video Thursday, has drawn widespread outrage as families across the United States continue to face enforcement actions after attending immigration court hearings.“The officer’s conduct in this video is unacceptable and beneath the men and women of ICE,” Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin 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.”CNN has asked ICE to clarify what “relieved of his current duties” entails and whether the officer remains employed elsewhere in the agency.The woman and her family have open asylum claims, according to the office of U.S. Representative Dan Goldman, whose district includes the courthouse. A spokesperson said the family “are here lawfully but are being targeted by ICE regardless.” Goldman and New York City Comptroller Brad Lander have referred the ICE agent to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for felony prosecution.Video footage shows Monica Moreta-Galarza and her daughter clinging to her husband as he is detained in a hallway of 26 Federal Plaza, the ICE district office in Lower Manhattan. A masked officer grabs Moreta-Galarza by the hair while another voice urges, “Just grab her, grab her and pull her away.”Moments later, she is taken into a nearby room while her children watch. The video resumes with her in the hallway confronting a federal agent in Spanish, saying, “You guys don’t care about anything!” The agent replies, “Adios, adios,” before shoving her down the hallway into a wall and onto the ground. He stands over her and says in Spanish, “Leave!”A spokesperson for New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the city is “less safe when immigrants are afraid to use basic services and attend court hearings,” adding that officials are pleased the incident is being investigated.Goldman and Lander called the officer’s actions “flagrantly egregious conduct” and said they violate the federal code on deprivation of rights under color of law. “In this case, the officer, acting under the color of law, willfully used excessive physical force by throwing a young mother to the ground and thereby deprived the victim of her Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures,” their statement said.New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani also condemned the actions, saying, “We knew that that act is taking place every day across this country, oftentimes unseen, unnoticed and unabashed in its cruelty. It’s important that we describe it, that we stand up to it.”Moreta-Galarza, who fled violence in Ecuador, was taken to a hospital for possible head trauma, according to Goldman’s office. The family plans to sue ICE for excessive use of force, and her husband has been transferred to a detention center in New Jersey, with his status currently unknown.The incident has renewed criticism of ICE courthouse arrests, with advocates calling for an end to detentions in and around court facilities. Jorge Torres, organizing director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said, “They trap and deport our neighbors when they are simply abiding by the rules to show up for their hearings. We demand ICE out of the courts — no arrests in or around our courthouses.”
