Outrage erupted after four plainclothes men were filmed detaining a woman outside a California airport, with viewers questioning whether the men were ICE agents.
Online reports said the incident took place outside Los Angeles International Airport.
The video shared online documented what viewers described as a kidnapping. “After my long day of travel this if what I arrived to in LA. Spread the word,” was written over the video. The footage showed the woman surrounded by four men in plain clothes as they appeared to detain her.
While the men surrounded the woman, she begged the man filming for help, saying, “Can you please call 911? Please.” The man then asked the group whether they were ICE agents, but they did not answer. The woman continued begging for help and asking bystanders to call 911. The cameraman also asked the group where they were taking her, but they did not respond.
“ICE. ICE. Why are you taking her?” the cameraman repeatedly yelled. Meanwhile, the group of men continued detaining the woman as she begged them to stop. “You can’t be doing this,” she said. However, the men did not stop.
After handcuffing the woman, the presumed ICE agents began leading her toward a vehicle. As they pushed her inside, the man filming asked for her name, seemingly in an attempt to help her. He then asked a masked man from the group for his name, but the man responded that he did not have to identify himself.
“Oh my God. Are you kidding? Are you [expletive] kidding?” the cameraman said as he filmed the vehicle’s license plate after the agents got the woman inside and closed the door.
The following part of the video showed the man inside his own car after the incident. “My only question is how in the [expletive] do you get on an airplane if you don’t have the proper documentation to board the [expletive] plane?” he asked.
“How can you kidnap somebody when they get off the [expletive] plane?” the man then yelled. He described the current climate in America as a “horror film” before adding, “This is absurd and if you don’t speak out, this is crazy.” The video ended with additional claims about the woman’s identity and attempts to locate her friends and family. Her identity could not be independently confirmed.
Viewers Outraged After California Woman Is Detained Outside of Airport
After seeing the video, viewers online expressed outrage over what happened to the woman. They raised concerns about her safety after she was detained by men presumed to be ICE agents. “We don’t know if they’re ICE and we have no reason to trust them. If law enforcement refuse to identify themselves, they are not law enforcement, they are kidnappers,” one person wrote.
More people expressed outrage over the situation, with one person writing, “That’s the entire problem with the manner in which they allow ICE to operate.”
It also raised concerns among viewers about determining whether people carrying out a detention are legitimate law enforcement officers when their identities and agency affiliations are not immediately apparent.
