Transcription
We begin today's show looking at ICE's escalating use of violence and force. Last week, an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good, 37-year-old mother of three in Minneapolis, sparking nationwide protests. On Thursday, President Trump threatened to invoke the insurrection act and send troops to Minnesota.
Following the shooting of Renee Good, ICE's violent tactics have come under increasing scrutiny. A new investigation by ProPublica documents more than 40 cases of immigration agents using banned choke holds and other moves that can cut off breathing.
In one case, ICE agents violently arrested an ICU nurse in California named Amanda Treeback while she was documenting ICE operations in the Los Angeles area. Two plain-clothed masked agents were filmed pinning her against the pavement as they knelt on her back. One agent put his knee on Treeback's head for a brief moment.
>> GET OFF HER HEAD.
>> GET OFF ME.
>> GET off your knee.
>> GET OFF HEAD.
>> GET IT OFF.
>> GET BACK.
>> Get back.
>> Get off her head.
>> This is public property, sir. This is public property.
>> streaming live. This is Ice beating her up. They got her knee on her head.
>> I am where I need to be. 10 ft.
>> So you >> guys get her in the van.
>> Sir, >> you okay?
>> Yeah.
Amanda Treyback was then held in federal custody. After her release, she appeared on Democracy Now.
>> They came out in a convoy. Um, they jumped out of the vehicle. Um, as you could see, they um pinned me to the ground um uh and um put uh they handcuffed me. They took me uh into an unmarked vehicle. They did not read me my rights. Uh, they didn't tell me where I was going. They shut the vehicle. Uh, they they drove me to the other side of the non-civilian side of Terminal Island. Um, and basically they kidnapped me.
We're joined now by ProPublica reporter Nicole Foy. Her latest article, headlined, "We found more than 40 cases of immigration agents using banned choke holds and other moves that can cut off breathing." In October, Nicole also revealed how ICE detained more than 170 US citizens. Nicole Foy, welcome to Democracy Now. It's great to have you with us. Why don't you lay out your latest findings? Talk about these potentially lethal choke holds, which are in fact illegal.
Yes, my my co-worker Mackenzie Funk and I, we've spent most of this last year documenting um aggressive tactics by immigration agents. And what we found is that over the last year um immigration agents across the country have used these really um dangerous and banned by their own policy choke hold and curareted restraints um as well as many of these also dangerous kneeling on people's necks, kneeling on backs like we saw with Amanda um in ways that can really restrict your breathing and your blood flow, which is one of the reasons why their own training actually highly discourages is this types of arrest, but we've seen it across the country.
And Nicole, could you talk about some of the specific examples of that you document? For instance, Arnaldo Bazan, a 10th grader uh in uh Texas.
Yes. Um, he was um, that's a that's a case that I think really sticks out because he is a 16-year-old US citizen and he was really violently arrested with his father um in a store in in Houston. Um, you can hear him in the video as officers are putting him in a chokehold screaming that he's a minor, that he's 16, that he was going to school, that he's a US citizen. And yet he told us that that didn't matter. The agent continued to use a chokehold on him that again is banned unless there is a call for deadly force. Um, and when we showed videos like um like this one to a number of police uh police officers, other former immigration officials and top DHS officials, they were really appalled and they had no idea what could have prompted this level of deadly force, especially against someone like a 16-year-old US citizen who really had really difficult and dramatic injuries to deal with in the aftermath.
Now, there is a federal ban on chokeholds and similar tactics. Have any officers from your reporting who've used these tactics faced uh disciplinary measures?
We've yet to find any evidence that they have. We asked the Department of Homeland Security if they have disciplined any officers, especially in cases where we showed them these videos and said, "Your own policy bans the the use of a curareted restraint, the use of a chokehold." What have these officers been disciplined? And they did not answer us, would not tell us if any had been disciplined for these tactics. And they stood very firmly behind their officers' actions and said that they were acting with the utmost professionalism and even using a reasonable amount of force.
I wanted to read from your piece. "Immigration agents have put civilians' lives at risk more um using more than their guns. An agent in Houston put a teenage citizen into a chokehold, wrapping his arm around the boy's neck, choking him so hard his neck had red welts hours later. A black-masked agent in Los Angeles pressed his knee into a woman's neck while she was handcuffed, then appeared to pass out. An agent in Massachusetts jabbed his finger um and thumb into the neck and arteries of a young father who refused to be separated from his wife and one-year-old daughter. The man's eyes rolled back in his head and he started convulsing." That's what you wrote. Um, tell us more about these cases.
I think the case of the young father in Massachusetts is particularly disturbing and was really disturbing for so many of the bystanders who were there witnessing it and recording it. Um, like you said, he refused to be separated from his young daughter, a one-year-old who was in the car with him in between him and his wife. Agents had come to arrest his wife, but she also didn't want to leave her one-year-old behind. Um, she was said that she was still breastfeeding and she couldn't leave the child behind. And in an effort, and we know this because we reviewed body cam footage and uh and bystander um footage, we know that officers really wanted them, specifically this this young man um Carlos to let go and he wouldn't let go of his daughter or his wife. And um, so they you can see in the video the moment when an agent decides to reach around from the back and press his fingers and thumb into his neck and he appears to start having a seizure and he shakes so violently that his young daughter who is of course crying is shaking with him. Um, he did end up getting to be released with his with his daughter. Um, but he's filed a lawsuit alleging um not only excessive force but also alleging that um ICE officers delayed medical attention when he requested it on the scene. Um, and so it was it it's really a difficult video to watch, but these arrests are playing out around the country and often in full view of cameras and and witnesses.
And this issue of ICE arresting American citizens. You you mentioned there've been about 130 of them, uh, including her about a dozen elected officials. Uh, could you talk about some of those cases, especially the case of Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales?
Yes. So last year in October um and this this count was only updated as of as of October 2025. Um, we had found that more than um 170 US citizens in total um were arrested around the country by immigration agents. Around a 130 of those um were actually arrested after accusations of assaulting officers or during protests or um because they were alleged to be obstructing ICE activities. But there were also many other US citizens like Dulce who were arrested and detained because of the fact that immigration agents believed that they were not US citizens and they this is despite evidence that was often presented um to them at the time of arrest or afterwards by family members. Um, I believe that is the case that of what happened with Dulce that she um they presented a birth certificate and yet that it um she was still detained for a number of days over the holidays if I'm if I'm remembering correctly.
Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales's case first gained national attention when one of her attorneys um took to the internet out of frustration with the lack of legal process and progress in the case.
>> My name is Victoria Slatten. I'm an immigration attorney. Um, I currently have a client who is a US citizen who is in ICE custody. They are blatantly ignoring orders from the court. They are not allowing me access to my client and I am at a loss and I'm incredibly angry.
Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales was finally released from ICE detention earlier this month. And this is how NBC4 Washington reported on her release and reunion with her 5-year-old son.
This is the moment when Dulce Consuelo Morales is once again able to embrace her son. And it was an incredibly emotional moment when she saw her son once again. She says she was detained by ICE agents on December 14th in front of her family near her home in Baltimore.
>> She says ICE agents told her to get out of the car because she was being detained. She says she tried to explain to them that she was born here in Maryland, but she says they didn't believe her.
In your ProPublica expose, what has surprised you most, Nicole?
I think one of the most surprising things is maybe that both like this is just happening around the country but I and often just really in full view of cameras, whether people whether immigration agents are arresting US citizens.
And they're grabbing cameras. And and grabbing cameras. I think that is really like as as someone who is a journalist and so of course is a huge advocate of the free press. It is perfectly legal to document these activities. And yet many of the US citizens who have been arrested by immigration agents believe that they were arrested because they were filming and after they were told to stop filming.
And agents are usually masked. How can they be held accountable? You are documenting illegal actions.
I think it's really difficult. Um, we are of course seeing a number of of of states and other municipalities try to find some way to allow their residents to file um to file lawsuits against um officers, but that's really difficult when not only have um are these agents masked, um the government is not telling us when who someone is that has committed an act of excessive force or something like that. But on top of that, the the um the the institutions within um ICE and DHS that are supposed to hold these officers accountable and at least conduct some type of internal review have been just completely stripped of personnel and authority.
I want to thank you very much for being with us. Uh, Nicole Foy um is a reporter for ProPublica covering immigration and labor. We'll link to all your recent pieces. Thanks for watching Democracy Now! on YouTube. Subscribe to the channel and turn on notifications to make sure you never miss a video. And for more of our audience-supported journalism, go to democracynow.org or where you can download our news app, sign up for our newsletter, subscribe to the daily podcast, and so much more.