A US citizen on her way to a medical appointment in Minneapolis was pulled from her car and detained by immigration officials, according to a statement released by the woman on Thursday, after a video of her arrest attracted millions of views on social media.
Aliya Rahman said she was brought to a detention center where she was denied medical care and lost consciousness. The Department of Homeland Security said she was an agitator who was interfering with ICE agents making arrests in the area.
That video is the latest in a flurry of online content documenting the intensifying immigration crackdown around the midwestern city, as thousands of federal agents carry out arrests amid protests in what local officials have likened to a “federal invasion.”
Dragged from her car
Rahman said she was on her way to a routine appointment at the Traumatic Brain Injury Center when she encountered federal immigration agents at an intersection. Video appears to show federal immigration agents shouting orders over a cacophony of whistles, car horns and shouts from protesters.
In the video, an undercover agent breaks Rahman’s passenger side window while others cut her seat belt and drag her out of the car through the driver’s side door. Several guards then carried her by her arms and legs to an ICE vehicle.
“I’m disabled trying to go to the doctor there, that’s why I didn’t move,” said Rahman, gesturing in the street as the officers pulled her arms behind her back.
Rahman was caught in a “terrible and confusing position” and had “nowhere to go,” according to Alexa Van Brunt, Rahman’s attorney and director of the MacArthur Justice Center.
“Her only options were to drive her car forward in the direction of the ICE officers and risk being accused of attempting to harm them—which led to the death of Renee Good—or to remain stationary, which ultimately led to physical violence and abuse,” Van Brunt wrote in a statement.
A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security disputed that account in an emailed statement Thursday, saying Rahman was an agitator who “ignored multiple commands from an officer to move her vehicle away from the scene.” She was arrested along with six other people whom the department called agitators, one of whom was accused of jumping on the back of an officer.
The department did not specify whether Rahman was charged or responded to questions about her claim that she was denied medical treatment.
A barrage of viral videos draws scrutiny
The video of Rahman’s arrest is one of many that have garnered millions of views in recent days — and has been scrutinized amid conflicting accounts from federal officials and civilian witnesses.
Often, what is in dispute pertains to what happened just before or just after a particular recording. But many contain common themes: Protesters blowing whistles, shouting or blowing horns. Immigration officers break vehicle windows, use pepper spray on protesters and warn observers not to follow them through public spaces. Immigrants and citizens alike forcibly pulled from cars, shops or homes and held for hours, days or more.
In one video, heavily armed immigration agents used a battering ram to break down the front door of Garrison Gibson’s Minneapolis home, where his wife and 9-year-old son were also inside. The video shot inside the house captures a woman’s voice asking, “Where is the warrant?” and, “Can you put the guns down? There are children in this house.”
Another video shows ICE agents, including Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino, holds two employees at a Target store in Richfield, Minnesota. Both are US citizens who were later released, according to social media posts by family members.
Monica Bicking, 40, was leaving the shelter where she works as a nurse when she took video that appears to show a federal agent kneeling a man in the face at least five times while several other agents place him face down on the sidewalk in south Minneapolis.
Bicking works full-time, so she says she doesn’t intentionally attend organized protests or confrontations with ICE. But she started carrying a yellow one in case she runs into ICE agents on her way to work or while running errands, which she says has become common in recent weeks.
“We’re hypervigilant every time we step out of our homes, looking for ICE, trying to protect our neighbors, trying to support our neighbors, who are now just locked down,” Bicking said.
‘I thought I was going to die’
In her statement, Rahman said that after being detained, she felt lucky to be alive.
“Masked agents dragged me from my car and tied me up like an animal, even after I told them I was disabled,” Rahman said.
While in custody, Rahman said she repeatedly asked for a doctor, but was instead taken to the detention centre.
“It was only before I passed out in my cell that I was finally taken to a hospital,” Rahman said.
Rahman was treated for injuries consistent with an assault, according to her attorney, and released from the hospital.
She thanked the emergency department staff for their care.
“They gave me hope when I thought I was going to die.”
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Associated Press reporter Rebecca Boone reported from Boise, Idaho.