Sources said the confrontation unfolded during the afternoon of Sept. 2 on 24th Avenue between 97th and 98th streets in East Elmhurst. Video obtained by amNewYork shows a man approaching a vehicle and pressing his cellphone against the driver’s side window and shouting, “Get out of the neighborhood. Get the f**k out of the neighborhood.” Filming ICE interactions from a public street is protected by the First Amendment, provided those doing the filming are not obstructing any official actions.

The armed individual inside the vehicle — whom sources identified as an ICE agent — then drew a handgun equipped with a mounted flashlight and pointed it toward the man filming. 

“You pointed a gun at me?” the cameraman asked, stunned.

“You tried to break my window with a weapon,” the individual inside the vehicle replied.

“It’s not a weapon,” the cameraman responded.

“It is a weapon,” the armed individual answered.

The encounter has left immigrant rights advocates and ICE watchdogs astonished over what they called a dangerous provocation. An ICE watcher familiar with the incident described the encounter to amNewYork.

“A community defender was standing beside the driver’s side window of the vehicle when the ICE agent could be seen lifting a pistol and pointing it directly toward the community defender to the point that you could see directly down the barrel of the gun,” said the watcher, who requested anonymity for this article.

Looking down the barrel of ICE agent’s gun

The watcher also condemned ICE’s presence in New York.

“A concerned neighbor looked down the barrel of a gun yesterday. ICE is a violent paramilitary force and is an imminent danger to our communities. This level of violence will only get worse until they are abolished,” the watcher added.

Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, called the incident “an abuse of power” and said the agent should face disciplinary action.

“Every American and every New Yorker has a legal and ethical right to film law enforcement, military or public officials without fear of arrest, violence or retaliation,” Awawdeh said. “Pointing a gun at any person for exercising their legal right to record is an abuse of power and a direct attack on our individual rights. We have seen the devastating consequences of putting armed ICE agents in our communities, from Minneapolis to Texas, where bystanders lost their lives. No New Yorker should have to fear being shot, threatened or killed because they are documenting the actions of ICE.”

Awawdeh added that the agent “was clearly attempting to threaten and intimidate community members into silence” and said the officer should be “at the very least reprimanded, if not taken off active duty.”

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin touted the ICE arrest of roughly 2,100 people in New York on Tuesday while threatening to send more federal agents into the city, accusing state and city leaders of hampering immigration enforcement.Photo by Dean Moses

The incident came a day after Mullin held a press conference at 26 Federal Plaza, where he announced that ICE had arrested about 2,100 immigrants in New York over the past month.

Mullin — who falsely claimed New York was a “crime-ridden city” despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary — also threatened to deploy more federal immigration agents to the city if Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul continue to prevent local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. 

“We will send as many people as we have possible to make sure that we’re restoring law and order,” Mullin said. “President Trump made this very, very clear. He loves New York. He made that very clear over and over again. He wants to see law and order restored.”

amNewYork reached out to DHS regarding Wednesday’s incident in Queens, and is awaiting a response.