A video clip is going viral on Reddit of an extremely shady alleged ICE raid on a taco truck in Memphis, Tennessee. A group of men without uniforms, warrants or any form of identification “detain” the taco truck workers in what appears, alarmingly, like a kidnapping.
The disturbing incident takes place on a taco truck in Memphis, Tennessee. In security footage, four men in casual clothing wander into a taco restaurant. They aren’t wearing any sort of identification and don’t appear to be armed. Essentially, they look like a group of guys you’d see on the street.
A second CCTV camera shows the inside of the taco truck, in which three employees are working. Despite the workers’ protests, the alleged ICE agents forcibly removed the workers from the taco truck. According to information on Reddit from the employer, the employees are apparently being detained by ICE. However, the employer points out it received no communication prior to the “detainment.” If it hadn’t been for the security footage, the company simply would have had no idea what had happened to their employees.
Notably, the employees don’t try to resist the “agents'” forcible action. As one Redditor put it, you’d like to think you’d refuse to go with the men. But “in reality I think fear takes over and submission seems like a better option.” Although alarming, it’s probably for the best. If the employees had resisted, who knows what violence would have followed? It doesn’t change the fact, however, that this looks all the world like a calm kidnapping. One commenter summarized it neatly, questioning, “Just a group of dudes show up and start kidnapping people?”
The unsettling footage adds to a growing body of video evidence that deeply dubious behavior is occurring under the guise of “ICE” action. We’ve seen instances of alleged ICE agents in unmarked cars with obscured plates and alarming intimidation. Huge anti-ICE protests have sprung up as a result.
It feels like the US is at an inflection point. If this intimidating, surely illegal behavior is allowed to continue under the guise of “ICE” action, the growing divide will only deepen. At the moment, ICE detainment is mainly causing fear. But it only takes a single escalation, a situation to spiral out of control, for fear to turn to anger.
