Montgomery County Council member Kristin Mink said a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer “grabbed” her arm and tried to take her phone Monday as she filmed a team of agents in Adelphi who appeared to be detaining a person.
Mink posted the video of the incident Tuesday on social media, where many applauded her as a defender of immigrants.
Mink narrates the video, which she recorded in the parking lot of a shopping center near the now closed Tick Tock Liquors. She told The Banner that she has been monitoring the area near the border of her council district and Prince George’s County because ICE has detained people there several times in recent months.
The video shows several men, including some wearing tactical vests. A man Mink believes to be an ICE agent notices her recording him from several yards away and walks toward her.
“I told you about that shit, get away,” the agent says.
Mink can be heard saying “don’t touch me” and “don’t grab my phone” before another man tells her to “go away, mind your own business.”
The ICE Office of Public Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident from The Banner on Tuesday.
Mink said she has seen these particular agents before and she believes they recognized her, but does not think they know she is an elected official.
“They have been increasingly aggressive toward community members, and that includes me,” Mink said.
It is legal to record ICE agents under the First Amendment and the Right to Record Act, but many people have been arrested, detained or questioned for recording ICE teams as they carry out a Trump administration program to detain and deport immigrants who lack legal status.
On Sunday, an ICE agent in California pointed a gun at a woman who was allegedly filming him. Many legal immigrants have also been caught up in ICE’s net.
Mink said that she used the license plate number on a car in the lot to connect with family members of the person detained.
“We can’t stay silent about this,” Mink said. “In the course of history, there has never been a time when staying silent and hoping that it would stop has ended the reign of terror over a community.”




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