ICE Strikes Again. Literally
End of September in NYC's immigration court
Originally published October 2, 2025
By PA
Clots of large, masked ICE agents clogged the corridors this morning. Some of them seemed clearly rookies, milling around aimlessly. But the muscleman who looks hardened by steroids was around, and he had quite a few even larger companions in his posse. The scene felt ominous. But I confess it often feels so, and then the menacing agents depart and the doom-clouds disappear.
This time not.
The corridors in the building have now been declared off limits to court observers. You must be inside a courtroom, or in a waiting room. Although sometimes the court administrators eject you from the waiting room, as I saw happen to two clergypersons who were sitting with an asylum seeker.
A few of us observers found a waiting area that wasn’t off limits. The door to a courtroom where some asylum seekers were facing a judge was ajar; we tried to hear what was being said. We hoped we’d be able to escort anyone who emerged out of the building, and of course hoped as well that they wouldn’t be abducted by ICE.
Suddenly, around 10:30 am, I heard a thud and panicked screaming. It was coming from just a few yards from our waiting room, by the elevator bank. I ran over in time to see elevator doors closing on some ICE agents, a large crowd looking away from the elevator, and in its center, a man on his back on the floor, unmoving.
The episode can be seen in this video by the photojournalist, Stephanie Keith.
The video shows what happened in the seconds before I arrived: two women, one in a striped top and the other in blue, walked into the elevator. They were followed closely by two masked ICE agents. Recognizing that the agents were likely to abduct one of the women, a reporter, Dean Moses from AM/NY, dashed into the elevatorThe ICE agents violently shovedMosesout of the elevator, screaming at him. (Soon after, AM/NY published Moses’ account of the incident-- lightly flawed but generally accurate) Meanwhile, other agents rushed toward the scrum. That included the squad leader, muscleman. Charging toward the elevator, another very large ICE agent, knocked a female photojournalist out of his way--and did so with such force that she fell onto photojournalist L. Vural Elibol, who was standing behind her. The thud I had heard was Elibol’s head hitting the floor.
The steroidal muscleman hurried his group of agents, including the behemoth journalist-shover, into the elevator. The doors closed.
When I arrived, the journalists were screaming, “what the fuck! What is this? “ And as most of them are photojournalists, shutters clicked. Other observers came out of the waiting room. The remaining ICE agents on the floor gathered. So did the building security workers in grey shirts . None of them moved toward the semiconscious man on the floor.
A young court observer crouched down at Elibol’s head, talking to him. Other journalists called to him not to move Elibol. . “I know,” he answered. “I just want to talk to him.” He touched the man’s face, trying, I think, to make sure he stayed awake.
A minute or so passed this way. Still, neither the ICE agents nor the security men moved to help. Nobody from ICE or building security called 9-1-1. Seeing that Elibol wasn’t getting medical assistance, a photojournalist made the call.
Aghast at their inaction, I asked one of the security workers if their group didn’t have a medical emergency team on call. “Yes we do,” he said. He made a call. By now Elibol had been lying on the floor for about three or four minutes.
A couple of minutes later, a man from one of the federal agencies, perhaps General Services Administration, which runs the building, came up. He waded into the crowd, looked down at the man on the floor, and made another call. The only thing I heard him say was, “because a man fell.” Then he hung up. I said to him, “he didn’t fall; he was pushed.” The staff member said nothing and left the scene.
By now, Elibol had been on the floor for about 10 minutes without medical attention. At this point,the “medical-emergency” person arrived: a nurse, with a wheelchair. Journalists and court observers shouted at her to please not try to put Elibol into the wheelchair!
The nurse bent down. He needs emergency assistance, I called out. She kneeled and asked him if had any health issues.
Does have any health issues? He does now, ma’am, I wanted to say. I did not.
She took his blood pressure. I couldn’t hear what she said to him, but at least she didn’t try to move him.
Soon, the chief of DHS police arrived with a small posse of uniformed DHS men. He did not call for medical help. “What are you gonna do now?” some journalists asked. The chief said they would hold an investigation. Members of his team took handwritten notes while interviewing people who had witnessed the incident. The chief did not clarify what the agency would do with these notes. I did not see him collect contact information from witnesses to summon for a later inquiry. He certainly did not call 9-1-1.
Then he told everyone to move away.
Now, nearly 20 minutes since the assault on the journalists and the Elibol’s head injury, two EMTs from NYU-Lagone arrived with a stretcher. They stabilized Elibol and took him away.
ICE left the immigration court areas of the building. Building security men dispersed to their regular posts.
Most of the hearings in progress wrapped up. Court administrators told us observers that the only hearing in progress was in a room that was “full,” so we couldn’t go into it, and therefore, we should leave.
Some of the observers sat on a bench outdoors to decompress together. I went for a walk, as I always do after a session inside the immigration-court building. When the week of Shiva, mourning for a deceased loved one, ends, the mourner walks around the block. It’s a way of dividing the self of the past days--those entirely rent by grief, from the grieving soul who returns to the world. It’s the same sort of need for recovery that makes me walk after watching the brutality in the courts.
Still, the chill wouldn’t dissipate. Seeing so many men with badges and guns doing absolutely nothing for a man lying semiconscious on the floor in front of them – the vileness wouldn’t leave me.
