A chilling peephole photo of an immigration agent in a bulletproof vest holding an assault rifle prompted renewed warnings to New York communities not to let immigration officials in their homes without a signed warrant. New York Times reporter Annie Correal shared the photo taken through the peephole of a Bronx apartment door on Twitter Wednesday, saying it had been released by advocates and a councilman. “Officers were recorded going door to door in an apartment building and threatening to use force to get in,” Correal tweeted. “At least one was photographed brandishing an assault rifle in the street outside.” She said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents told her they were trying to execute a criminal arrest warrant. That warrant, however, wasn’t visible in the peephole photo.
Correal’s post sparked hundreds of retweets, likes, and comments from social media users, at least one of whom shared a story of an immigration arrest so flawed that it led a Pennsylvania county executive to prohibit arrests without warrants. “A lot of this sort of thing going around,” The Morning Call reporter Dan Sheehan tweeted.
Another Twitter user called the New York incident “terrifying.” “Everyone is affected by this,” social media user John Conner tweeted. “If ICE can justify entering people's home without a warrant on the basis of looking for undocumented immigrants, ANY law enforcement agency can justify unlawful search and seizures against anyone!”
In the Pennsylvania case, the agent who apprehended Franklin Urrutia-Cordon Monday at the Northampton County Courthouse claimed he had a warrant in his car, but when the man's attorney, Joshua Fulmer, asked the agent to produce it, he instead said he was initiating an "administrative warrantless arrest," The Morning Call reported. According to the newspaper, County Executive Lamont McClure ordered Tuesday that: “No one will be permitted to be arrested in this courthouse by the federal government without a warrant from a federal judge.”
Brooklyn public defender Scott Hechinger tweeted Wednesday that people need to know how to “safely defend themselves.” "Appears that ICE has now been joined by the armed ‘tactical forces’ from border for ‘supercharged arrest operations’ as reported," he said. Hechinger also shared a link to an informational animated series informing residents in four different languages of how they should respond if confronted by immigration officials. The video warns viewers that ICE agents may use tricks or lies to get a person of interest to open the door. “They may say they're looking for a friend, relative, or roommate, but do not be fooled. And do not open the door," a narrator said in the video.
You can watch it below.