Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents threatened a Rhode Island Superior Court judge and an intern after they botched a detainment operation on Thursday.
Outside the Licht Judicial Complex in Providence, Rhode Island, ICE agents briefly took a high school intern into custody who worked at the Superior Court, WPRI 12 News reported.
Courthouse security had noticed someone taking photos of the intern from outside the courthouse earlier that day. The individual, when approached, identified himself as an ICE agent before he was told to stop taking pictures.
The intern, unsettled by the federal agents stalking him, was offered a ride home by Superior Court Judge Joseph McBurney. However, ICE agents surrounded the judge’s car and threatened to smash its windows if they did not exit the vehicle.
The Superior Court’s head of security intervened, telling the judge and the intern to stay in the car.
The intern was briefly handcuffed and taken into custody by ICE agents, as seen in video from bystanders.
After an argument ensued, the ICE agents confirmed they had misidentified their target and left the scene.
The Department of Homeland Security responded to the incident in a statement to the Daily Beast.
“On November 20, Homeland Security Investigations was targeting a child predator,“ DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. “Officers briefly questioned someone who resembled the target. He was never arrested or taken into custody.”
The incident took place as community members from the Alliance to Mobilize Resistance were staging a protest against ICE activity, leading to a tense standoff between the federal agents and local residents.
One video shows an ICE agent pointing their taser at a protester before getting in their car and leaving the scene.
“Clearly, it seems that if [ICE] had the wrong person, then they didn’t really know who they were looking for, which calls into question whether they had a legal right to seize anybody,” attorney Miriam Weizenbaum, who witnessed the detainment, told WPRI. “It’s very frightening.”
Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee responded to the incident in a statement posted to Instagram.
“Today, ICE agents wrongfully detained a high school intern outside the Superior Court—an outrageous and indefensible act that could have completely upended a young person’s life,” the statement reads. “Rhode Islanders should not have to fear federal agents operating with such reckless disregard for the law and human dignity.”
“This was not a harmless mistake,” the statement continued. “It was the direct result of callous and chaotic policies by the Trump Administration. Moreover, ICE’s failure to exercise even a shred of due diligence is shameful and underscores just how broken and dangerous these federal policies are.”
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