What Body Cam Footage Reveals About ICE’s Tactics

本站添加: 2026-04-29

[00:00:00]I was literally at work.

[00:00:03]All of a sudden I see the lights behind me.

[00:00:07]I see them with guns and everything drawn and I'm like all of a sudden they just somebody just grabs me from my shirt.

[00:00:12]>> The first question they asked me was where was I born? One of them tells them [music] just get him, he's Mexican. He points me out.

[00:00:19]>> It was a matter of seconds. Oh my My daughter was passing by.

[00:00:25]>> That's my mom. What the She she got her phone and she started recording. Hey, what are you doing? Show them their green card. That's my mom.

[00:00:34]>> And they pulled me out of the car Wait. and I started screaming because I because I panicked. They never asked my name or ID or anything.

[00:00:49]Because they lie all the time.

[00:00:52]Ma'am, what is your emergency? All right, I'll be there in a couple I don't know where they're taking me. I'm a US citizen and I was detained You're a US citizen I think. You can't do this.

[00:01:01]>> five days.

[00:01:03]Immigration agents appear to have had no clear reason to approach Waneta Avila and Javier Ramirez other than it seems the color of their skin. That's because Chief Justice John Roberts Supreme Court has given ICE the rubber stamp to racially profile. This is the opinion of the New York Times editorial board.

[00:01:21]It's happening across the country.

[00:01:24]You were born here?

[00:01:25]>> Yeah. Really? Yeah. Do you speak English? Yeah. Do you understand why you were stopped? This is a Buddy's taking a ride. He's going with ICE.

[00:01:33]>> This is body camera footage from just one night of traffic stops in Nashville, Tennessee.

[00:01:38]>> your driver's license? In May 2025, state troopers and federal immigration agents teamed up.

[00:01:44]broken We rarely get to watch ICE in [music] action like this.

[00:01:51]It might be wet. When we say wet, that means it's illegal. A non-profit had to sue to get this footage which was first made public by Lighthouse Reports. I might have two. Are you here legally? I think we're creeping up on 20. It's dogs already. That's my record. What it shows is troubling. Does your license look like anything?

[00:02:09]Were you born here?

[00:02:11]Were you born in there? Okay, I got you.

[00:02:13]Do you have yours on you, buddy? Ma'am, do you have your ID on you as well?

[00:02:15]>> Sit on the vehicle for me, okay? Where were you born at?

[00:02:18]>> Take these two stops. Anything, folks?

[00:02:20]>> It's my brake light.

[00:02:21]>> Yes, ma'am.

[00:02:22]>> I have an appointment for it to get fixed.

[00:02:24]>> first, a driver is pulled over for a broken brake light. Before the officer even runs her license, he tells the ICE agent waiting nearby.

[00:02:34]I'm taking her out. She's let go without any further questions. Thank you so much. Now compare that to [music] these stops. Let me see your legal identification. Do you have a license?

[00:02:43]Do you have a ID as well, buddy? Hey, how you doing? Hola.

[00:02:47]You don't have you have you have a license [music] on you?

[00:02:50]Ma'am, do you have a you have a driver's license?

[00:02:52]>> In most cases, when a driver looks Latino or speaks with an accent >> Hey, you want to check the other occupants?

[00:02:57]>> officers ask [music] everyone in the car for identification. Hey, yeah, I'm asking you, do you have a license? I'm not driving. But when the driver looks white [music] >> Cool, man. You just bought this thing?

[00:03:06]We'll be right back with you, okay?

[00:03:10]She'll be good. You got your license registration and stuff? Can I reach for it? Yeah, yeah. You got any weapons in the car? Yeah, right under my seat.

[00:03:16]That's why I took my hands off the thing. Okay, well, you you don't reach for it, I won't reach for mine. The footage also shows officers stopping black and brown drivers for minor issues. Like a tail light problem? Yeah, the window tint. Like a tinted window, a license plate without a light >> have the lights to illuminate your your license plate. even a bent plate that's still clearly [music] readable.

[00:03:34]>> It's like bent in half.

[00:03:35]>> Then come the questions.

[00:03:36]>> Are you from Nashville?

[00:03:38]You are you born here? How long have you been in the country? Were you born here?

[00:03:42]This is what racial profiling looks like. Were you born here in the United States? What's even more troubling, the Supreme Court has effectively [music] signed off on all of this. In a recent ruling, the court said immigration agents can weigh factors like race, language, [music] and accent when deciding who to stop and question. Hopefully they roll up in a big truck, a bunch of them and it's like what day is it? 9, 10, 11, or 12? Waneta and Javier carried [music] documents with them proving their citizenship or legal status. But when stopped, [music] they say they weren't even given the opportunity to show those documents.

[00:04:15]>> My passport was in my wallet that day. I pulled out my my green card from my pocket and I said I I have my ID. You guys didn't even ask for it. I was moving a lot because they put their knee put it on my on my neck.

[00:04:30]So I remember the video of George Floyd.

[00:04:32]I'm like, I don't want to die. So I was [music] trying to move from it.

[00:04:37]I just didn't I just didn't want them to to take me for no reason. I actually called 911. I'm sitting in the van and I don't know where they're taking me. You are with Border Patrol.

[00:04:47]Okay, yes, I'm a US citizen and I'm hurt and I need an ambulance. Sir, yeah, I cannot take your call. You're going to have to speak to them and wait for them Okay, okay, I'm already speaking with you, sir. I need an ambulance.

[00:05:00]Right, and I cannot dispatch you help, sir.

[00:05:03]I just hear the officers just laughing.

[00:05:05]They took the picture of me with the face recognition. You hear them laughing, high-fiving themselves like, hey, how many did you get? How many did you get? You know, oh, I got 18. I got five. I got six. Yeah, you know, high-fiving.

[00:05:18]>> [music] >> You know, all of a sudden they got to learn it again like who I was and they seen that I was a US citizen. So that's when then, you know, awkward silence. So why is this happening?

[00:05:32]I'm a citizen. I'm a citizen.

[00:05:34]I got rights to talk, bro. You got no right here. I do. It's long been the case that law enforcement can use physical factors like race, gender, and height to identify an individual suspect. But for years, the Supreme Court has been very clear that you can't use race in broad blanket ways in many parts of American life.

[00:05:54]Take education. In 2023, the Supreme Court ruled against Harvard saying colleges could no longer consider race in admissions decisions. [music] Also, in 2007, Chief Justice John Roberts argued that if you sort people by race, it's discrimination. He put it simply, the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.

[00:06:17]But when it comes to immigration, the court has taken the opposite [music] approach. It has allowed ICE to consider race during immigration stops. This is a double standard and communities of color are left living with the consequences. I was born and raised in I was traumatized.

[00:06:35]>> I couldn't even I I didn't even want to get up. Just by seeing cars pass by you know, tinted windows, you know, or or plates from a different state you don't know if they're ICE or not.

[00:06:47]>> I thought they were coming for criminals. To me, that was fine, but not this. They had no reason for them to pull me over or to stop me and and to do all the things that they did.

[00:07:03]I told my daughter, if anybody ask you, where are you from, tell them I am a US citizen and you were born in LA.

[00:07:11]So remember those words. And she said, okay, Daddy.

[00:07:15]The Supreme Court and the Trump administration must uphold the promise of the Constitution.

[00:07:20]All persons, regardless of race, must be treated equally under the law. The Supreme Court needs to address its contradictory rulings. Otherwise, millions of people will continue to live in fear of their own government.

[00:07:38]>> [music] [music] >> Oh, they're going to That'll be We'll be on the news tomorrow.

[00:08:21]>> Yeah. We're live at Signal Mountain on the news tomorrow. No doubt in my mind.