Federal immigration agents held a teenage boy at gunpoint Wednesday and bloodied him up, before they realized they had the wrong person.
Jeury Concepcion, 19, told NBC New York he’d been victim of a violent wrongful immigration arrest in the Bronx’s Norwood neighborhood earlier this week. In a video of the incident, a masked federal agent can be seen running up behind Concepcion with his gun drawn. Concepcion stopped and appeared calm, as more masked agents pulled up in an unmarked car.
Two federal officers then pushed him to the ground, and a third rushed over to help place him in handcuffs as he struggled facedown on the sidewalk. Another agent, wearing an “ERO” (Enforcement and Removal Operations) vest, kept bystanders at bay. Cellphone video showed that Concepcion was bleeding out of his head as ICE agents put him in their vehicle.
During the ride, the officers finally asked Concepcion to show ID and his cellphone. Only then did they realize they had arrested the wrong person. Concepcion said he was born and raised in New York.
Concepcion said he was dropped off at a park he was unfamiliar with and was later reunited with his mother, who took him to the hospital where he needed four stitches. Concepcion has visible cuts and bruises on his face, and is also suffering from a concussion, he told the outlet.
Another man was arrested as part of the ICE investigation in Norwood. A separate video shows agents chasing and tackling the man, who the agency claims is an undocumented immigrant.
This is the kind of wanton violence that President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement crackdown has unleashed on citizens and noncitizens alike. Speaking at a security conference in Phoenix Tuesday, White House border czar Tom Homan threatened to “flood” New York City with ICE officers, while New York Governor Kathy Hochul promised to pass new protections for immigrants.