A federal officer for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has been “relieved of his duties” after a video showing him pushing a woman to the floor at an immigration court in New York City spread quickly on social media.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security sent a statement to the Guardian, saying the officer’s actions were “unacceptable and beneath the men and women of Ice”.
“This officer is being relieved of current duties as we conduct a full investigation,” McLaughlin added.
The video shows a woman, and a young girl who appears to be her daughter, pleading with officers not to take away her husband at the courthouse at 26 Federal Plaza in lower Manhattan, which has been the scene of extraordinary Ice arrests and protests as Donald Trump has stepped up his anti-immigration and mass deportation agenda.
Related: Civil disobedience and mass arrests outside immigration court in New York – in pictures
In the video, they are crying as officers take the man into custody. ProPublica identified the woman as Monica Moreta-Galarza, from Ecuador.
The video captures Moreta-Galarza pleading with the now-suspended officer. He tries to dismiss her by saying “adios”. When Moreta-Galarza touches his shoulder, he grabs her, pushes her across the hallway, against the wall and on to the floor, where it appears she bangs the back of her head.
Utterly distraught, the women gets to her feet. After the incident, Democratic congressman Dan Goldman, of New York, said that Moreta-Galarza “fled” to his office with her two young children. ProPublica also reported that Moreta-Galarza was later taken to hospital.
Goldman called it an example of “secret police officers who are attacking our communities with excessive violence … and they just think that they can do it with impunity, because nobody is holding them accountable”, in comments to the media posted on X by ProPublica.
According to local news outlet AMNY, the agent was seen last month forcibly pulling a teenage girl from her father’s arms as she cried. The outlet also noted that several court observers have raised concerns for months about his physical conduct. The Guardian has reached out to DHS for further comment.
In recent months, breaking norms, Ice has been showing up outside immigration court across the country and arresting people in the hallways as they come out of hearings in the small courtrooms.
The news of the incident on Friday came as deaths in Ice custody reached at least 16 so far this year and new federal data showed that the largest group of people in Ice detention are now those with no criminal history.
