Read our feature article on combating and resisting ICE terror here.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers assaulted and hospitalized Nigerian immigrant Chidozie Wilson Okeke in New York City on May 5. When protesters confronted ICE at the hospital where Okeke was being held, NYPD protected ICE agents by attacking and arresting 9 protesters, allowing ICE to transport Okeke into a vehicle and complete its operation.
Video taken by a witness shows two ICE agents removing Okeke from his car, with one agent pointing a taser through Okeke’s car window and a second agent forcing open Okeke’s car door. As one agent tries to pull him out of his car, Okeke yells, “I need to speak to my lawyer,” several times before the other agent tases him. Okeke howls in pain while more ICE agents arrive to brutalize Okeke, forcing him to the ground and handcuffing him. After the assault, ICE took Okeke to a hospital due to the damage he had sustained.
Despite video evidence, a DHS spokesperson said, “This criminal was not tased by law enforcement.”
Later that evening, a protest erupted outside the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn, where ICE had taken Okeke and was detaining him. By 10:30pm, at least 100 demonstrators stood off against two dozen NYPD officers outside the hospital in a confrontation that would last several hours.
In response to the situation, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani followed his pattern of defending ICE in deeds while feigning opposition in words, stating, “I want to be very clear: there was no prior coordination nor planning between the NYPD and ICE ahead of this incident, NYPD officers were not dispatched to the hospital to participate or facilitate an ICE operation.”
Reports from the scene contradict Mamdani’s characterization of NYPD’s coordination with ICE. Around 2am, ICE agents dragged a still-handcuffed Okeke out of the hospital. When protesters attempted to block ICE’s path, NYPD pepper sprayed protesters, shoved them to the ground, and arrested 9 people in order to protect ICE agents. NYPD also assisted ICE agents by changing a flat tire on one of their vehicles.
NYPD’s role in Okeke’s abduction is an expression of ICE replacing “shock and awe” operations with low-intensity covert raids and increased police collaboration, a division of labor that allows ICE to focus on abducting immigrants while local police repress people’s resistance.
ICE’s tactical shift is a result of the people’s successful combative resistance and mass demonstrations, especially the people’s victory over Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis in late January, which forced ICE to retreat, reorganize its command, and reduce its operations.
In an analysis of the latest available data, monopoly media organization The Associated Press states that the number of weekly arrests by ICE fell from 8,347 to 7,369 in the five weeks after Tom Homan declared that Operation Metro Surge was over on February 4, representing a 12% reduction in ICE’s nationwide deportation rate.
Image: Chidozie Wilson Okeke and ICE officers in New York City. Credit: Screenshot from video produced by Freedomnews.tv.
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