Two NYPD officers sustained minor injuries during a scuffle involving federal immigration agents in Washington Heights Wednesday morning, police said.
The incident happened as federal agents made multiple arrests in the neighborhood and residents called 911 to report four armed men pulling people out of cars, according to the NYPD and local officials.
NYPD officers began driving around the neighborhood searching when they spotted a group of people chasing somebody near 164th St. and Broadway. The officers jumped out of their cars to intervene before realizing the people chasing were federal immigration agents, according to the NYPD.
Officials said the federal agents verbally identified themselves as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after the interaction but wore sweatshirts without any visual markings of their agency. The NYPD is forbidden from assisting in civil immigration enforcement.
Authorities said the officers were treated for minor injuries and that it happened during the interaction with ICE.
City Councilmember Shaun Abreu, who represents the area, posted a video to social media of what he said was a separate immigration enforcement action that happened around the same time. That video, recorded at 157th and Broadway, showed agents pulling a man from a car.
Peter Green, the man who recorded the video, told Gothamist in an interview that NYPD officers arrived at least a minute or two after the federal agents had left with the person taken from the car.
Abreu called the the incident at 157th and Broadway, “deeply disturbing.”
“I condemn this despicable pattern of intimidation,” he said. “ICE and other federal agencies that are carrying out Trump’s agenda of detaining people without due process have no place in our city.”
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said ICE arrested an "illegal alien from Guinea" and chided Abreu.
"Council Member Shaun Abreu should stop fearmongering and smearing our brave law enforcement who are facing 1000% increase in assaults against them and an nearly 8000% increase in death threats," she said in a written statement.
She did not address the interaction with NYPD officers.
This story has been updated with a statement from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and to clarify details about the interaction between the officers and agents.
