We Found More Than 40 Cases of Immigration Agents Using Banned Chokeholds and Other Moves That Can Cut Off Breathing
Immigration agents have put civilians lives at risk using more than their guns.An agent in Houston put a teenage citizen into a chokehold, wrapping his arm around the boys neck, choking him so hard that his neck had red welts hours later. A black-masked agent in Los Angeles pressed his knee into a womans neck while she was handcuffed; she then appeared to pass out. An agent in Massachusetts jabbed his finger and thumb into the neck and arteries of a young father who refused to be separated from his wife and 1-year-old daughter. The mans eyes rolled back in his head and he started convulsing.After George Floyds murder by a police officer six years ago in Minneapolis less than a mile from where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Renee Good last week police departments and federal agencies banned chokeholds and other moves that can restrict breathing or blood flow.But those tactics are back, now at the hands of agents conducting President Donald Trumps mass deportation campaign.Examples are scattered across social media. ProPublica found more than 40 cases over the past year of immigration agents using these life-threatening maneuvers on immigrants, citizens and protesters. The agents are usually masked, their identities secret. The government wont say if any of them have been punished.In nearly 20 cases, agents appeared to use chokeholds and other neck restraints that the Department of Homeland Security prohibits unless deadly force is authorized.About two dozen videos show officers kneeling on peoples necks or backs or keeping them face down on the ground while already handcuffed. Such tactics are not prohibited outright but are often discouraged, including by federal trainers, in part because using them for a prolonged time risks asphyxiation.We reviewed footage with a panel of eight former police officers and law enforcement experts. They were appalled.This is what bad policing looks like, they said. And it puts everyone at risk.I arrested dozens upon dozens of drug traffickers, human smugglers, child molesters some of them will resist, said Eric Balliet, who spent more than two decades working at Homeland Security Investigations and Border Patrol, including in the first Trump administration. I dont remember putting anybody in a chokehold. Period.If this was one of my officers, he or she would be facing discipline, said Gil Kerlikowske, a longtime police chief in Seattle who also served as Customs and Border Protection commissioner under President Barack Obama. You have these guys running around in fatigues, with masks, with Police on their uniform, but they arent acting like professional police.Over the past week, the conduct of agents has come under intense scrutiny after an ICE officer in Minneapolis killed Good, a mother of three. The next day, a Border Patrol agent in Portland, Oregon, shot a man and woman in a hospital parking lot.Top administration officials rushed to defend the officers. Speaking about the agent who shot Good, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said, This is an experienced officer who followed his training.Officials said the same thing to us after we showed them footage of officers using prohibited chokeholds. Federal agents have followed their training to use the least amount of force necessary, department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said.Officers act heroically to enforce the law and protect American communities, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said.Both DHS and the White House lauded the utmost professionalism of their agents.Our compilation of incidents is far from complete. Just as the government does not count how often it detains citizens or smashes through vehicle windows during immigration arrests, it does not publicly track how many times agents have choked civilians or otherwise inhibited their breathing or blood flow. We gathered cases by searching legal filings, social media posts and local press reports in English and Spanish.Given the lack of any count over time, its impossible to know for certain how agents current use of the banned and dangerous tactics compares with earlier periods.But former immigration officials told us they rarely heard of such incidents during their long tenures. They also recalled little pushback when DHS formally banned chokeholds and other tactics in 2023; it was merely codifying the norm.That norm has now been broken.One of the citizens whom agents put in a chokehold was 16 years old.American citizen Arnoldo Bazan was hospitalized after being choked and pinned to the ground at a restaurant supply store in Houston during the arrest of his father nearby. Courtesy of the Bazan familyTenth grader Arnoldo Bazan and his father were getting McDonalds before school when their car was pulled over by unmarked vehicles. Masked immigration agents started banging on their windows. As Arnoldos undocumented father, Arnulfo Bazan Carrillo, drove off, the terrified teenager began filming on his phone. The video shows the agents repeatedly ramming the Bazans car during a slow chase through the city.Bazan Carrillo eventually parked and ran into a restaurant supply store. When Arnoldo saw agents taking his father violently to the ground, Arnoldo went inside too, yelling at the agents to stop.One agent put Arnoldo in a chokehold while another pressed a knee into his fathers neck. I was going to school! the boy pleaded. He said later that when he told the agent he was a citizen and a minor, the agent didnt stop.I started screaming with everything I had, because I couldnt even breathe, Arnoldo told ProPublica, showing where the agents hands had closed around his throat. I felt like I was going to pass out and die.DHS McLaughlin accused Arnoldos dad of ramming his car into a federal law enforcement vehicle, but he was never charged for that, and the videos we reviewed do not support this claim. Our examination of his criminal history separate from any immigration violations found only that Bazan Carrillo pleaded guilty a decade ago to misdemeanor driving while intoxicated.McLaughlin also said the younger Bazan elbowed an officer in the face as he was detained, which the teen denies. She said that Arnoldo was taken into custody to confirm his identity and make sure he didnt have any weapons. McLaughlin did not answer whether the agents conduct was justified.Experts who reviewed video of the Bazans arrests could make no sense of the agents actions.Why are you in the middle of a store trying to grab somebody? said Marc Brown, a former police officer turned instructor who taught ICE and Border Patrol officers at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers. Your arm underneath the neck, like a choking motion? No! The knee on the neck? Absolutely not.DHS revamped its training curriculum after George Floyds murder to underscore those tactics were out of bounds, Brown said. DHS specifically was very big on no choking, he said. We dont teach that. They were, like, hardcore against it. They didnt want to see anything with the word choke.After agents used another banned neck restraint a carotid hold a man started convulsing and passed out.Officers used a carotid hold on Carlos Sebastian Zapata Rivera while arresting his wife in Massachusetts. NewsflareIn early November, ICE agents in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, stopped a young father, Carlos Sebastian Zapata Rivera, as he drove with his family. They had come for his undocumented wife, whom they targeted after she was charged with assault for allegedly stabbing a co-worker in the hand with scissors.Body camera footage from the local police, obtained by ProPublica, captured much of what happened. The couples 1-year-old daughter began crying. Agents surrounded the car, looking in through open doors.According to the footage, an agent told Zapata Rivera that if his wife wouldnt come out, they would have to arrest him, too and their daughter would be sent into the foster system. The agent recounted the conversation to a local cop: Technically, I can arrest both of you, he said. If you no longer have a child, because the child is now in state custody, youre both gonna be arrested. Do you want to give your child to the state?Zapata Rivera, who has a pending asylum claim, clung to his family. His wife kept saying she wouldnt go anywhere without her daughter, whom she said was still breastfeeding. Zapata Rivera wouldnt let go of either of them.Federal agents seemed conflicted on how to proceed. I refuse to have us videotaped throwing someone to the ground while they have a child in their hands, one ICE agent told a police officer at the scene.But after more than an hour, agents held down Zapata Riveras arms. One, who Zapata Riveras lawyer says wore a baseball cap reading Ne Quis Effugiat Latin for So That None Will Escape pressed his thumbs into the arteries on Zapata Riveras neck. The young man then appeared to pass out as bystanders screamed.The technique is known as a carotid restraint. The two carotid arteries carry 70% of the brains blood flow; block them, and a person can quickly lose consciousness. The tactic can cause strokes, seizures, brain damage and death.Even milliseconds or seconds of interrupted blood flow to the brain can have serious consequences, Dr. Altaf Saadi, a neurologist and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, told us. Saadi said she couldnt comment on specific cases, but there is no amount of training or method of applying pressure on the neck that is foolproof in terms of avoiding neurologic damage.In a bystander video of Zapata Riveras arrest, his eyes roll back in his head and he suffers an apparent seizure, convulsing so violently that his daughter, seated in his lap, shakes with him.Video of Zapata Riveras arrest shows him shaking violently while suffering an apparent seizure in the front seat of his car, with officers continuing to attempt the arrest. NewsflareCarotid restraints are prohibited unless deadly force is authorized, DHS use-of-force policy states. Deadly force is authorized only when an officer believes theres an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury and there is no alternative.In a social media post after the incident and in its statement to ProPublica, DHS did not cite a deadly threat. Instead, it referenced the charges against Zapata Riveras wife and suggested he had only pretended to have a medical crisis while refusing help from paramedics. Imagine FAKING a seizure to help a criminal escape justice, the post said.These statements were lies, Zapata Rivera alleges in an ongoing civil rights lawsuit he filed against the ICE agent who used the carotid restraint. His lawyer told ProPublica that Zapata Rivera was disoriented after regaining consciousness; the lawsuit says he was denied medical attention. (Representatives for Zapata Rivera declined our requests for an interview with him. His wife has been released on bond, and her assault case awaits trial.)A police report and bodycam footage from Fitchburg officers at the scene, obtained via a public records request, back up Zapata Riveras account of being denied assistance. Hes fine, an agent told paramedics, according to footage. The police report says Zapata Rivera wanted medical attention but agents continued without stopping.Saadi, the Harvard neurologist, said that as a general matter, determining whether someone had a seizure is not something even neurologists can do accurately just by looking at it.DHS policy bars using chokeholds and carotid restraints just because someone is resisting arrest. Agents are doing it anyway.Federal officers arrested American citizen Luis Hipolito with a chokehold, pinning him to the ground in Los Angeles on June 24. @the_moxie_reportWhen DHS issued restrictions on chokeholds and carotid restraints, it stated that the moves must not be used as a means to control non-compliant subjects or persons resisting arrest. Deadly force shall not be used solely to prevent the escape of a fleeing subject.But videos reviewed by ProPublica show that agents have been using these restraints to do just that.In Los Angeles in June, masked officers from ICE, Border Patrol and other federal agencies pepper-sprayed and then tackled another citizen, Luis Hipolito. As Hipolito struggled to get away, one of the agents put him in a chokehold. Another pointed a Taser at bystanders filming.Then Hipolitos body began to convulse a possible seizure. An onlooker warned the agents, You gonna let him die.In the video of Hipolitos arrest, four agents can be seen pulling at his body, choking him and pinning him to the pavement. @the_moxie_reportWhen officers make a mistake in the heat of the moment, said Danny Murphy, a former deputy commissioner of the Baltimore Police Department, they need to correct it as quickly as possible.That didnt happen in Hipolitos case. The footage shows the immigration agent not only wrapping his arm around Hipolitos neck as he takes him down but also sticking with the chokehold after Hipolito is pinned on the ground.The agents actions are dangerous and unreasonable, Murphy said.Asked about the case, McLaughlin, the DHS spokesperson, said that Hipolito was arrested for assaulting an ICE officer. Hipolitos lawyers did not respond to ProPublicas requests for comment.According to the Los Angeles Times, Hipolito limped into court days after the incident. Another citizen who was with him the day of the incident was also charged, but her case was dropped. Hipolito pleaded not guilty and goes to trial in February.Some of the conduct in the footage isnt banned but its discouraged and dangerous.An officer kneels on the neck of nurse and activist Amanda Trebach, a U.S. citizen, during an arrest in Los Angeles. Courtesy of Union del BarrioA video from Los Angeles shows a Colombian-born TikTokker who often filmed ICE apparently passed out after officers pulled her from her Tesla and knelt on her back or neck. Another video shows a DoorDash driver in Portland, Oregon, screaming for air as four officers pin him face down in the street. Aire, aire, aire, he says. No puedo respirar I cant breathe. Then: Estoy muriendo Im dying. A third video, from Chicago, shows an agent straddling a citizen and repeatedly pressing his face into the asphalt. Onlookers yell that the man cant breathe.Placing a knee on a prone subjects neck or weight on their back isnt banned under DHS use-of-force policy, but it can be dangerous and the longer it goes on, the higher the risk that the person wont be able to breathe.You really dont want to spend that amount of time just trying to get somebody handcuffed, said Kerlikowske, the former CPB commissioner, of the video of the arrest in Portland.Brown, the former federal instructor and now a lead police trainer at the University of South Carolina, echoed that. Once you get them handcuffed, you get them up, get them out of there, he said. If theyre saying they cant breathe, hurry up.DoorDash driver Victor Jos Brito Vallejo was pinned to the ground by federal agents in Portland, Oregon, on Sept. 11. The OregonianTaking a person down to the ground and restraining them there can be an appropriate way to get them in handcuffs, said Seth Stoughton, a former police officer turned law professor who also works at the University of South Carolina. But officers have long known to make it quick. By the mid-1990s, the federal government was advising officers against keeping people prolongedly in a prone position.When a federal agent kneeled on the neck of an intensive care nurse in August, she said she understood the danger she was in and tried to scream.I knew that the amount of pressure being placed on the back of my neck could definitely hurt me, said Amanda Trebach, a citizen and activist who was arrested in Los Angeles while monitoring immigration agents. I was having a hard time breathing because my chest was on the ground.McLaughlin, the DHS spokesperson, said Trebach impeded agents vehicles and struck them with her signs and fists.Trebach denies this. She was released without any charges.Protesters have also been choked and strangled.In the fall, a protester in Chicago refused to stand back after a federal agent told him to do so. Suddenly, the agent grabbed the man by the throat and slammed him to the ground.No, no! one bystander exclaims. Hes not doing anything!DHS McLaughlin did not respond to questions about the incident.Along with two similar choking incidents at protests outside of ICE facilities, this is one of the few videos in which the run-up to the violence is clear. And the experts were aghast.Without anything I could see as even remotely a deadly force threat, he immediately goes for the throat, said Ashley Heiberger, a retired police captain from Pennsylvania who frequently testifies in use-of-force cases. Balliet, the former immigration official, said the agent turned the scene into a pissing contest that was explicitly out of control.Its so clearly excessive and ridiculous, Murphy said. Thats the kind of action which should get you fired.How big a threat did you think he was? Brown said, noting that the officer slung his rifle around his back before grabbing and body-slamming the protester. You cant go grab someone just because they say, F the police.Roving patrols + unplanned arrests = unsafe tactics.Two federal officers arrest a construction worker in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Nov. 19. Ryan Murphy/Getty ImagesIn November, Border Patrol agents rushed into the construction site of a future Panda Express in Charlotte, North Carolina, to check workers papers. When one man tried to run, an officer put him in a chokehold and later marched him out, bloodied, to a waiting SUV.The Charlotte operation was one of Border Patrols many forays into American cities, as agents led by commander-at-large Gregory Bovino claimed to target criminal illegal aliens but frequently chased down landscapers, construction workers and U.S. citizens in roving patrols through predominantly immigrant or Latino communities.Freelance photographer Ryan Murphy, who had been following Border Patrols convoys around Charlotte, documented the Panda Express arrest.Their tactics are less sophisticated than you would think, he told ProPublica. They sort of drive along the streets, and if they see somebody who looks to them like they could potentially be undocumented, they pull over.Experts told ProPublica that if officers are targeting a specific individual, they can minimize risks by deciding when, where and how to take them into custody. But when they dont know their target in advance, chaos and abuse can follow.They are encountering people they dont know anything about, said Scott Shuchart, a former assistant director at ICE.The stuff that Ive been seeing in the videos, Kerlikowske said, has been just ragtag, random.There may be other factors, too, our experts said, including quotas and a lack of consequences amid gutted oversight. With officers wearing masks, Shuchart said, even if they punch grandma in the face, they wont be identified.As they sweep into American cities, immigration officers are unconstrained and, the experts said, unprepared. Even well-trained officers may not be trained for the environments where they now operate. Patrolling a little-populated border region takes one set of skills. Working in urban areas, where citizens and protesters abound, takes another.DHS and Bovino did not respond to questions about their agents preparation or about the chokehold in Charlotte.Experts may think theres abuse. But holding officers to account? Thats another matter.Arnoldo, 16, and his sister, Maria Bazan, 27, at their home in Houston. Maria brought her brother to the hospital after his detention by federal officers. Danielle Villasana for ProPublicaBack in Houston, immigration officers dropped 16-year-old Arnoldo off at the doorstep of his family home a few hours after the arrest. His neck was bruised, and his new shirt was shredded. Videos taken by his older sisters show the soccer star struggling to speak through sobs.Uncertain what exactly had happened to him, his sister Maria Bazan took him to Texas Childrens Hospital, where staff identified signs of the chokehold and moved him to the trauma unit. Hospital records show he was given morphine for pain and that doctors ordered a dozen CT scans and X-rays, including of his neck, spine and head.From the hospital, Maria called the Houston Police Department and tried to file a report, the family said. After several unsuccessful attempts, she took Arnoldo to the department in person, where she says officers were skeptical of the account and their own ability to investigate federal agents.Arnoldo had filmed much of the incident, but agents had taken his phone. He used Find My to locate the phone at a vending machine for used electronics miles away, close to an ICE detention center. The footage, which ProPublica has reviewed, backed the familys account of the chase.After Arnoldo was choked by a federal officer, his sister took him to the hospital, where doctors quickly moved him to the trauma unit. Courtesy of the Bazan familyThe family says Houston police still havent interviewed them. A department spokesperson told ProPublica it was not investigating the case, referring questions to DHS. But the police have also not released bodycam footage and case files aside from a top sheet, citing an open investigation.We cant do anything, Maria said one officer told her. What can HPD do to federal agents?Elsewhere in the country, some officials are trying to hold federal immigration officers to account.In California, the state Legislature passed bills prohibiting immigration officers from wearing masks and requiring them to display identification during operations.In Illinois, Gov. JB Pritzker signed a law that allows residents to sue any officer who violates state or federal constitutional rights. (The Trump administration quickly filed legal challenges against California and Illinois, claiming their new laws are unconstitutional.)In Colorado, Durangos police chief saw a recent video of an immigration officer using a chokehold on a protester and reported it to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, which announced it was looking into the incident.In Minnesota, state and local leaders are collecting evidence in Renee Goods killing even as the federal government cut the state out of its investigation.Arnoldo is still waiting for Houston authorities to help him, still terrified that a masked agent will come first. Amid soccer practice and making up schoolwork he missed while recovering, he watches and rewatches the videos from that day. The car chase, the chokehold, his own screams at the officers to leave his dad alone. His father in the drivers seat, calmly handing Arnoldo his wallet and phone while stopping mid-chase for red lights.The Bazan family said agents threatened to charge Arnoldo if his dad didnt agree to be deported. DHS spokesperson McLaughlin did not respond when asked about the alleged threat. Arnoldos dad is now in Mexico.Asked why an officer choked Arnoldo, McLaughlin pointed to the boys alleged assault with his elbow, adding, The federal law enforcement officer graciously chose not to press charges.How We Did ItProPublica journalists Nicole Foy, McKenzie Funk, Joanna Shan, Haley Clark and Cengiz Yar gathered videos via Spanish and English social media posts, local press reports and court records. We then sent a selection of these videos to eight police experts and former immigration officials, along with as much information as we could gather about the lead-up to and context of each incident. The experts analyzed the videos with us, explaining when and how officers used dangerous tactics that appeared to go against their training or that have been banned under the Department of Homeland Securitys use-of-force policy.We also tried to contact every person we could identify being choked or kneeled on. In some cases, we also reached out to bystanders.Research reporter Mariam Elba conducted criminal record searches of every person we featured in this story. She also attempted to fact-check the allegations that DHS made about the civilians and their arrests. Our findings are not comprehensive because there is no universal criminal record database.We also sent every video cited in this story to the White House, DHS, CBP, ICE, border czar Tom Homan and Border Patrols Gregory Bovino. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin provided a statement responding to some of the incidents we found but she did not explain why agents used banned tactics or whether any of the agents have been disciplined for doing so.The post We Found More Than 40 Cases of Immigration Agents Using Banned Chokeholds and Other Moves That Can Cut Off Breathing appeared first on ProPublica.
Arabic
French
Spanish
Portuguese
Deutsch
Turkish
Dutch
Italiano
Russian
Romaian
Portuguese (Brazil)
Greek