On Thursday, September 25, 2025, a disturbing scene unfolded at 26 Federal Plaza, the heart of immigration enforcement in Lower Manhattan, when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shoved a woman into a wall and then pushed her to the ground in full view of her two young children. The incident, captured on multiple videos and rapidly disseminated across social media, has sparked outrage, protests, and renewed scrutiny of ICE’s tactics during the latest wave of immigration crackdowns in New York City.
According to CNN, the altercation began in a crowded hallway outside the federal immigration court. Monica Moreta-Galarza, an immigrant from Ecuador, and her daughter were seen clinging to her husband as ICE agents attempted to detain him. The family, whose asylum cases remain open, had fled violence in Ecuador, hoping for safety and due process in the United States. “Over in Ecuador, they beat us there too,” Moreta-Galarza told reporters. “I didn’t think I’d come here to the United States and the same thing would happen to me.”
Witnesses and video footage show that as agents tried to separate the family, one officer grabbed Monica’s hair while another pulled the young girl away. Amid the chaos, Monica continued to plead with the officers, her children visibly distraught. The officer, wearing a mask and not identifying himself, repeatedly told her, “Adios, adios,” as she motioned and spoke to him in Spanish. When she placed her hand on his chest, he forcefully shoved her several feet down the hallway, slammed her into a wall, and then pushed her to the ground. The officer then stood over her and, in Spanish, ordered her to leave, summoning nearby officers to remove her from the building.
Other videos, published by outlets including The Guardian and The New York Times, captured the incident from multiple angles, showing the desperation of the family and the aggressive response from the agents. Court security officers eventually escorted Monica and her children away from the scene. She was later taken to the hospital, according to New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who was present at the plaza during the incident.
In the aftermath, the public outcry was immediate. Hundreds gathered in Foley Square across from the courthouse for a protest organized by “New Yorkers against ICE,” which had already been scheduled before the day’s confrontation. Brad Lander, a frequent critic of ICE and a Democrat, addressed the crowd, saying, “We are not going to stop showing up until they stop abducting our neighbors.” He later posted on social media, “An ICE agent violently threw this bereft woman to the ground in front of her kids. She had not touched him. She did not pose any threat. She had to be taken to the hospital.” Lander also noted that the agents neither identified themselves nor presented a warrant or lawful grounds for detaining Monica’s husband, a claim echoed by other witnesses.
U.S. Representative Dan Goldman, whose district includes the courthouse, stated that Monica and her two children “fled to my office for safety after she was assaulted.” Goldman and Lander jointly sent a two-page document to federal prosecutors, urging felony prosecution of the officer for “excessive physical force” and depriving Monica of her right to be “free from unreasonable searches and seizures,” as reported by The New York Times. Goldman further called on Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to “take appropriate disciplinary action and implement measures to prevent this from happening again.”
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, responded to the growing controversy on Friday. Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin issued a statement, saying, “The officer’s conduct in this video is unacceptable and beneath the men and women of ICE. Our ICE law enforcement are held to the highest professional standards and this officer is being relieved of current duties as we conduct a full investigation.” However, ICE has yet to clarify whether “relieved of current duties” means the officer has been suspended, reassigned, or is still employed elsewhere within the agency.
The incident comes amid an intensifying crackdown on immigrants in New York City. Since May, ICE has made dozens of arrests at immigration courts, part of President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to ramp up mass deportations. The federal building at 26 Federal Plaza has become a focal point, not only for immigration hearings but also for ICE’s enforcement actions. According to The New York Times, the building houses the immigration court, the FBI’s New York field office, and other federal agencies, making it a strategic site for apprehending migrants as they attend routine court hearings.
Court observers and local media have reported that the ICE officer involved in Thursday’s incident had previously been seen using force on other occasions. AMNY noted that last month the same agent was observed forcibly pulling a teenage girl from her father’s arms as she cried. Concerns about the officer’s conduct had reportedly been raised for months prior to the latest incident.
As ICE arrests at the courthouse have increased, so too have complaints about overcrowded and unsanitary conditions in the building’s holding cells—facilities meant to temporarily house a small number of migrants for just a few hours. The surge in arrests has disrupted immigration proceedings, with federal agents detaining migrants mid-hearing and swiftly moving to deport them, sometimes before their cases are fully adjudicated. These practices have drawn criticism from legal advocates, city officials, and Democratic lawmakers, who argue that such tactics undermine due process and treat migrants as “less-than-human.”
Political reactions to the incident have been swift and pointed. Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York mayor, called the agent’s behavior “sickening” and criticized the city’s current administration for its cooperation with ICE. “The fact that Mayor Adams has rolled out the red carpet for ICE is a stain on the city,” Mamdani wrote on social media. Mayor Eric Adams, for his part, has supported some aspects of the federal immigration crackdown but last month demanded that the federal government stop making arrests at city immigration courts, a move seen by some as an attempt to balance competing pressures from the White House and local immigrant communities.
ICE, for its part, maintains that its officers are held to high professional standards, but the agency’s aggressive tactics and the lack of transparency in its operations have left many New Yorkers uneasy. The investigation into the officer’s conduct is ongoing, but for Monica Moreta-Galarza and her family, the trauma of that day will likely linger far longer than the headlines.
As the city wrestles with the fallout, the incident at 26 Federal Plaza stands as a stark reminder of the real human toll behind America’s immigration enforcement policies—and the urgent need for accountability and reform.
