Protesters Gathered in Brooklyn after ICE Agents Shot Man in Face (+Video)
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Protesters gather outside New York hospital after ICE agents shot a 26-year-old Mexican man in the face while trying to arrest someone else.
A band of protesters holding “ICE is Gestapo” and “No ICE” signs crowded outside a Brooklyn hospital Thursday night, and expressed worry that immigration agents might try to spirit away a man shot by an ICE agent earlier in the day.
The group of about 60 demonstrators outside Maimonides Hospital in Borough Park heard elected officials blast the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, NYDailynews reported.
“This is unacceptable behavior from ICE. I think this is a criminal act,” said state Assemblyman Felix Ortiz. “There was no need to put a gun to an innocent person. When this going to stop?”
Agents from ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations raided the Gravesend residence of Gaspar Avendano-Hernandez on Thursday.
Both sons of Avendano-Hernandez’s girlfriend came to his aid, and an agent shot one of the sons, Eric Diaz-Cruz, 26, in the face. He’s in critical but stable condition. A Mexican diplomat said Diaz-Cruz is in the country legally with a visa.
“This is not bad hombres, this is not violent criminals,” said New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams in an apparent reference to President Trump’s use of the term “bad hombres” to describe some Mexicans.
Off the ICE agents, Williams said: "If people are coming out — not even identifying themselves — jumping out and trying to jump on people, there is a problem.”
He called ICE the “Gestapo,” the shortened name for Nazi Germany’s secret police.
“Everybody says it can’t happen here. It’s happening here,” Williams said. “The message for ICE: We don’t want you here.”
ICE issued a statement describing Avendano-Hernandez as “a twice-removed illegal alien from Mexico with a 2011 assault conviction in New York City.”
