Immigration Agents Use Banned Chokeholds, Other Moves That Restrict Breathing

"An agent in Houston put a teenage citizen into a chokehold, wrapping his arm around the boy's neck, choking him so hard that his neck had red welts hours later. A black-masked agent in Los Angeles pressed his knee into a woman's neck while she was handcuffed; she then appeared to pass out. An agent in Massachusetts jabbed his finger and thumb into the neck and arteries of a young father who refused to be separated from his wife and 1-year-old daughter."

"After George Floyd's murder by a police officer six years ago in Minneapolis - less than a mile from where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Renee Good last week - police departments and federal agencies banned chokeholds and other moves that can restrict breathing or blood flow. But those tactics are back, now at the hands of agents conducting President Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign. Examples are scattered across social media."

Immigration agents used chokeholds, knee restraints, and neck compression on civilians, causing red welts, fainting, convulsions, and at least one death near Minneapolis. Incidents include a Houston agent choking a teenage citizen until red welts developed, a masked Los Angeles agent pressing a knee into a handcuffed woman until she appeared to pass out, and a Massachusetts agent jabbing fingers into a father's neck until he convulsed. Chokeholds were banned after George Floyd's murder, but similar tactics reemerged during a mass deportation campaign. More than 40 cases over the past year involved life-threatening maneuvers; agents are often masked and identities secret. The Department of Homeland Security prohibits neck restraints unless deadly force is authorized, and authorities have not reported disciplinary actions.

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