Disturbing video captures the moment a group of ICE agents in full riot gear forced a detainee to the floor and restrained him inside a Georgia detention facility as he desperately shouted, ‘I’m being kidnapped by the US government.’
The previously unseen footage, leaked by a female former immigration officer turned whistleblower, shows the tense confrontation between the detainee and agents after he alleged he had been wrongfully held.
Wearing red prison-issued clothing, the man repeatedly claimed that ICE had taken his birth certificate and said his father had been a US citizen for two decades.
‘ICE kidnapped me,’ he said, arguing that his detention was ‘illegal.’
According to the source, the confrontation began after the detainee refused to leave his cell to be taken for processing.
He instead insisted that he be brought to an embassy.
‘Are you sure you’re not going to come out peacefully?’ an ICE officer was heard asking as the prolonged standoff neared its breaking point.
Seconds later, at least nine officers — several of them wearing riot helmets — rushed into the cramped cell while the detainee sat quietly on his bed.
The never-before-seen video, which was leaked by a whistleblowing former immigration officer, shows the agents pinning the detainee to the ground inside a facility in Georgia
The detainee had been sitting calmy on his bed just moments before half a dozen ICE agents in riot gear stormed into his tiny cell
The footage shows them throwing him to the ground and holding him down before they eventually cuffed him.
‘I’m being kidnapped by the US government,’ the man repeatedly shouted. ‘You’re kidnapping me.’
It wasn’t immediately clear which facility the incident occurred at. The ICE source refused to give up the name amid fears of reprisal.
The man’s immigration status was also not immediately known but he stressed at one point in the footage that he wasn’t born in Haiti.
Details about the disturbing incident, which unfolded in 2019 during President Trump’s first administration, only just surfaced after the whistleblower source quit the agency in disgust.
During Trump’s first term, roughly 550,000 arrests were made by ICE. He has since dramatically ramped up detentions with about 393,000 ICE arrests made in his first year back in office.
The officer claimed she turned in her resignation due to the ‘inhumane’ treatment detainees were allegedly forced to endure – just like the man in the footage.
‘There was a lot of discrimination, favoritism, I did not want to be part of this whole agenda – I feel like it is wrong,’ the source said.
‘I know we are going after criminals, that these people should not be in this country, but there are limits to what I can handle.’
Multiple officers were decked out in riot gear as the chaos unfolded inside the facility
As the scores of agents pinned the man to the ground, he could he heard screaming: ‘I’m being kidnapped by the US government’
The footage shows them throwing him to the ground and holding him down before they eventually cuffed him
The former officer said even though she is a Republican who voted for Trump, she still couldn’t stand by and watch what was unfolding.
‘I have seen so much go wrong,’ the source said.
‘I have seen detainees die, some of them get mistreated, and detainees with serious medical problems get shut away.
‘I didn’t want to be part of this anymore. I want to serve my country but in the right way.’
The footage surfaced as the Trump administration continued to forge ahead with its tough immigration crackdown.
ICE, for its part, has faced a wave of criticism from civil rights organizations and former detainees over conditions inside detention centers and allegations of excessive force.
A lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union earlier this year alleged some ICE agents at the Fort Bliss immigration detention facility in El Paso, Texas had taken to torturing and sexually abusing some immigrants.
The man’s immigration status was not immediately known but he stressed at one point in the footage that he wasn’t born in Haiti
In one of the more troubling cases, the lawsuit detailed how one detainee, Geraldo Lunas Campos, died in custody in January after being choked by an agent during an altercation.
Meanwhile, Francisco Gaspar Andres, a Guatemalan immigrant, died last December of liver and kidney failure after he was not given appropriate medical care at the facility, according to the suit.
‘These acts of violence,’ the filing stated, adding that it shows ‘a pattern of brutality that violates even ICE’s minimal standards.’
It comes as the Trump administration continued to ramp up efforts to deport illegal immigrants, including using US military bases to house detainees.
The Daily Mail reached out to ICE for comment.
