A video released by the New York Immigration Coalition shows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents apparently forcing their way into a family’s home in Queens without a warrant.
The coalition says the incident happened last Thursday morning.
The video shows the agents appearing to point guns at a mother and her four children. According to the coalition, the agents then forcibly removed the mother from her bed. The ICE agents were reportedly searching for an individual who does not live at the address.
According to the news publication “The City,” the agents were looking for a cousin of the mother who did not live there anymore. “The City” also reported that all four children are U.S. citizens.
“The family has been traumatized by what felt to them like a home invasion — the children are fearful of leaving their mother when they go to school,” Murad Awawdeh, president of NYIC, said in a statement in response to the incident. “No child should ever have to be a victim of such unlawful and ruthless behavior. The Trump administration must end its war on immigrants.”
NY1 reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and the NYPD for comment on the incident.