Video posted on social media showed two plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents appearing to handcuff a man at a Las Vegas airport while he screamed in terror.
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The incident happened Monday night in Terminal 3 at Harry Reid International Airport. The footage showed the man on the ground with one hand behind his back as the two agents surrounded him.
As the person filming the incident asks what’s going on, the male agent pulls a hoodie over his head.
“I don’t know what they’re doing,” the man on the ground screams.
The two agents then walk away, leaving the man with a handcuff attached to one arm. The female agent, who is wearing a face mask, also covers her head with a hoodie as she walks away.
Las Vegas police confirmed that the two people in the video trying to handcuff the man were ICE agents. Police also said that officers conducted a records check and “found no outstanding warrants on the individual.”
“They removed the handcuff from his wrist and notified ICE,” Las Vegas police said in a statement.
The Department of Homeland Security identified the man as Phu Nguyen and said he is a citizen of Australia who overstayed his visa. The two agents left without arresting Nguyen, “to de-escalate the situation and for officer safety,” after a crowd formed, a DHS spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Nguyen, 57, was arrested on Tuesday at his flight departing the Los Angeles International Airport on July 14, the statement said.
Online records show that he is being held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California. It’s not clear if Nguyen has obtained an attorney.
DHS said Nguyen entered the United States legally on a visa in May 2013, “with permission to remain in the United States until May 26, 2015.”
“Nguyen refused to depart in violation of our nation’s laws,” the agency said in its statement. “He will receive full due process and remain in ICE custody pending the outcome of his removal proceedings.”
When contacted for comment, Immigration and Customs Enforcement shared the same statement from DHS.
Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., slammed the arrest and said she was “demanding answers about what happened.”
“Plain clothes. No uniforms. No body cameras. No identification. ICE is continuing to act with impunity — instilling fear in our communities and scaring tourists, which hurts our tourism economy,” she wrote in a post Thursday on X.
DHS did not immediately respond to NBC News’ question about why the agents were in plainclothes and whether they announced themselves as law enforcement before Monday’s attempted arrest.
“Enough is enough. ICE must follow the same commonsense guardrails as other law enforcement agencies,” Rosen said.
Athar Haseebullah, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, said ICE acted recklessly.
“The footage shows ICE officers throwing hoodies on over their head while covering their faces, accosting a harmless and confused man, trying to block community members from capturing the incident on video, and then running away from the scene. These are the actions of an agency that is lawless, dangerous, and disgraceful, and we cannot allow this kind of behavior in our state,” he said in a statement.
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