A typical weekday drive home in Scranton turned into a frightening experience for a member of the University community.<\/p>\n
ICE agents pulled over and nearly detained the individual, who spoke about their experience on condition of anonymity. The individual is a naturalized U.S. citizen.<\/p>\n
The individual is one of many people in the United States who has been directly affected by the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.<\/p>\n
Following their normal routine, the individual left work around 4:30 in the afternoon. As they drove home, multiple cars surrounded their vehicle as a traffic light turned green.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe light was green … and some guy, I don\u2019t know where they came from. I saw a couple cars,\u201d the individual said.<\/p>\n
When the individual tried to back up, the cars surrounded the front and back of their vehicle. Traffic passed by, but because of the way the car was blocked in, no one could see the individual.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said \u2018What\u2019s going on?\u2019 because three regular cars, I believed they were going to kidnap me. They\u2019re going to kidnap me, like when they traffic women,\u201d the individual said.<\/p>\n
The individual again asked officers what was going on. The officers tried to open the car door on both sides, including the back, ultimately using force.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy car was locked, of course. And they were like, \u2018Open the car.\u2019 So, I open my window all the way down so they can put their hands and open my car. I\u2019m alone, with nobody. So, I say, \u2018Can I help you?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The individual said the officers wore masks. They told the individual to get out of the car so they could detain them. There were multiple officers surrounding the car.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hear one in the back say \u2018I think we got the wrong person,\u2019 and the other one says \u2018They all look the same, we gotta get this one.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The individual had no idea what was going on or why they were pulled over, even after repeatedly asking.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not identifying themselves, they were not saying we are border patrol or ice agents, nothing. They wore regular clothes, but the only thing they have is like their little bulletproof vests that says ICE. It was just like regular clothes,\u201d the individual said.<\/p>\n
The individual handed them their identification, still unsure of the situation. The individual said they did not feel safe or reassured.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tried to grab my phone to put on the dash to start recording. When I tried to grab my phone, one came, looked at what I was going to do, and said \u2018Don\u2019t move\u2019 and he grabbed his gun,\u201d the individual said.<\/p>\n
After the officer showed the individual the gun, they were too scared to record anything. The individual continued to ask what the problem was, but received no answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI asked a simple question, what is this about? It (the light) was green. I don\u2019t have a stop sign. I don\u2019t know where they came from, I only know one crossed me in the back on the side, and I\u2019m like \u2018What is going on?\u2019\u201d the individual said.<\/p>\n
The individual said they remained polite to the officers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had one of them say, \u2018Open your car, if you don\u2019t I am going to break your window.\u2019 \u00a0I said ‘If you\u2019re gonna break my window you\u2019re going to pay for that,’\u201d the individual said.<\/p>\n
A female officer then approached the individual holding the drivers\u2019 license they asked for. The officer started speaking Spanish.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe started speaking to me in Spanish. And I\u2019m like, why are you talking to me in Spanish when I was talking perfectly in English? I answered her in English. She assumed because of my last name on the license.\u201d<\/p>\n
The female officer questioned the individual on the last time they had been to court. The individual said they were only there for jury duty, but nothing recently. The officer told the individual they needed to get out of the car so they could process and detain them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said first of all, you have my identification. Pennsylvania, for your ID or formal identification, a drivers’ license, you need to have papers. They don\u2019t give you an ID without papers, I told them. So do your research,\u201d the individual said.<\/p>\n
The individual’s car also had University stickers on it, identifying their place of work. The individual remembered they had a copy of their naturalization certificate in the back of the car.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank God I had that paper. It was a copy. I told her, I\u2019m gonna move, I\u2019m gonna get my purse, I have something in there that I can prove to you I am a U.S. citizen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The female officer then went back with the copy and drivers\u2019 license. After that, she came back to the individual’s car and said, \u201cYou are good to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t even apologize for saying, \u2018Oh its not you\u2019 I was so nervous. When they gave me my stuff, I had no space and I need to get out. I pulled my car and I pressed that accelerator.\u201d<\/p>\n
The individual drove home and took deep breaths after the experience. They are still fearful. Someone passing by or crossing their path can bring back feelings from that day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the life we live now. Fear,\u201d the individual said.<\/p>\n
The individual encouraged people to vote and make a change.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need a change. It\u2019s getting too far.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A typical weekday drive home in Scranton turned into a frightening experience for a member of the University…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":{"0":"post-119260","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-scranton","9":"tag-scranton-headlines","10":"tag-scranton-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}