A newly released video shows federal agents force their way into a Queens apartment, pulling a gun on her mother and her four kids in an encounter the family’s lawyer said wasn’t supposed to happen.
Dramatic portions of footage of the East Elmhurst incident shared by The New York Immigration Coalition show a frantic mother in a bedroom, her children by her side — ages 2, 6, 10 and 13 — by her side.
“I got my baby,” she screams, as a man who appears to be a federal agent yells, “Come out here!”
“I got my baby. No!” she is heard yelling.
Surveillance video shows a group in tactical gear force their way into the home. One man, noticing a camera, flips it around. The confrontation happened last week. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson says the officers knocked on the door for 20 minutes before forcing it down.
“ICE and U.S. Marshals Service attempted to serve a criminal arrest warrant for Raymundo Gabriel Huerra-Betancourt,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. “His criminal history includes assault, reckless driving and illegal re-entry. The woman in this video was the target’s cousin.”
Ron Kuby, a civil rights attorney representing the family, says his client’s cousin hasn’t lived there in years.
“They break down the door with a battering ram. They hold the entire family at gunpoint,” Kuby said. “They terrorized her. They terrorized the children.”
Kuby said his client, Jennifer, who preferred to use only her first name, has lawful status in the United States and that her children were born in America. He said her husband has been here for years.
Kuby said Jennifer did have her cousin’s number and claimed she was forced to call him. He also alleges they showed no warrant, no display of authority and vowed to return.
At some point, video also shows an NYPD patrol car arriving — after neighbors heard commotion and thought there was a robbery in progress, according to Kuby. The man believed to be a federal agent approached the officer’s window. After a brief conversation, the officer drove away. The NYPD is prohibited, by law, from engaging in civil immigration enforcement.