ICE agents caught using deadly tactics banned after George Floyd death
Immigration officers are repeatedly employing chokeholds and other dangerous restraints that federal policy largely outlawed after George Floyd’s murder, placing civilians — including U.S. citizens, immigrants, and protesters — at risk. A ProPublica review identified more than 40 incidents over the past year; in nearly half, agents appear to have used prohibited neck restraints, and in about two dozen more, they knelt on people’s necks or backs or kept them prone while handcuffed, heightening the risk of asphyxiation. Agents often wore masks and concealed their identities, and authorities have not said whether anyone was disciplined.
Banned tactics are back
Following Floyd’s killing, police departments and federal agencies restricted moves that impede breathing or blood flow. DHS policy bars chokeholds and carotid restraints “unless deadly force is authorized,” and cautions against prolonged prone restraint. Yet the tactics have resurfaced as agents carry out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation push.
An eight-member panel of former police and federal trainers who reviewed the footage called the conduct reckless. “I don’t remember putting anybody in a chokehold. Period,” said Eric Balliet, a veteran of Homeland Security Investigations and Border Patrol. Former Seattle police chief and Obama-era CBP commissioner Gil Kerlikowske added: “You have these guys running around in fatigues, with masks, with ‘Police’ on their uniform, but they aren’t acting like professional police.”
The scrutiny intensified after an ICE officer fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis, and a day later a Border Patrol agent shot a man and woman in a Portland, Oregon, hospital parking lot. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem defended the officer in Minneapolis as “an experienced officer who followed his training.” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told ProPublica agents “use the least amount of force necessary,” and the White House praised their “utmost professionalism.”
Case studies of dangerous force
Houston: Sixteen-year-old citizen Arnoldo Bazan filmed masked agents in unmarked cars ramming his father’s vehicle during a slow chase. When his father, Arnulfo Bazan Carrillo, ran into a store, an agent put Arnoldo in a chokehold while another pressed a knee into his father’s neck. “I couldn’t even breathe,” the teen said, showing marks on his throat. DHS later claimed Bazan Carrillo rammed a federal vehicle and that Arnoldo elbowed an officer; he denied it, no such charge appeared, and videos reviewed by ProPublica do not support the ramming claim. Former federal trainer Marc Brown was blunt: “Arm underneath the neck? No. Knee on the neck? Absolutely not. DHS was hardcore against anything with the word ‘choke.’”
Fitchburg, Massachusetts: ICE stopped Carlos Sebastian Zapata Rivera while targeting his wife, who faced an assault charge. With their 1-year-old crying, an agent warned both parents could be arrested and the child placed in foster care. After more than an hour, an agent applied a carotid restraint; Zapata Rivera’s eyes rolled back and he convulsed. DHS policy allows carotid restraints only when deadly force is justified. DHS did not cite a deadly threat; instead, a social post suggested Zapata Rivera faked a seizure. A lawsuit alleges he was denied medical care, and local police bodycam footage indicates paramedics were rebuffed. “There is no foolproof way to apply neck pressure without risking neurologic damage,” said Dr. Altaf Saadi, a Harvard neurologist.
Los Angeles: Agents pepper-sprayed and tackled citizen Luis Hipolito; video shows an officer maintaining a chokehold even after Hipolito was pinned and apparently convulsing. “Dangerous and unreasonable,” said former Baltimore deputy police commissioner Danny Murphy. DHS says Hipolito assaulted an officer; he has pleaded not guilty.
Other clips show a Colombian-born TikTok creator apparently unconscious after officers knelt on her neck or back; a DoorDash driver in Portland pinned prone, gasping, “No puedo respirar”; and a Chicago agent repeatedly pressing a citizen’s face into asphalt as onlookers shouted he couldn’t breathe. While DHS doesn’t flatly ban knees on a prone subject, federal trainers have long warned to minimize time in that position. “Once they’re cuffed, get them up,” Brown said. “If they say they can’t breathe, hurry.”
Protest scenes have also turned violent. In Los Angeles, intensive care nurse and activist Amanda Trebach said an agent drove a knee into her neck while she lay on the pavement; DHS accused her of impeding vehicles and striking agents, which she denies. She was released without charges. In Chicago, an agent grabbed a protester by the throat and slammed him to the ground after he refused to step back. “He immediately goes for the throat without anything remotely resembling a deadly force threat,” said retired captain Ashley Heiberger. “That’s the kind of action which should get you fired,” Murphy added.
Urban sweeps, thin accountability
During a Border Patrol operation at a Charlotte, North Carolina, Panda Express construction site, an agent used a chokehold on a fleeing worker and led him out bloodied. Photographer Ryan Murphy described agents cruising city streets and stopping people who looked “potentially undocumented.” Former ICE official Scott Shuchart said roving urban sweeps invite chaos because “they are encountering people they don’t know anything about.” Kerlikowske called recent clips “ragtag, random.” Masks and gutted oversight, experts said, further reduce consequences: “Even if they punch grandma in the face, they won’t be identified,” Shuchart said.
Aftermath and efforts to rein in abuses
In Houston, hospital records show Arnoldo was treated in a trauma unit, given morphine, and scanned extensively. His phone, seized during the arrest, later pinged at an electronics kiosk near an ICE detention center; recovered footage supported the family’s account. Houston police told ProPublica they are not investigating and referred questions to DHS, though they have withheld bodycam footage citing an open case. The family says one officer told them, “What can HPD do to federal agents?” DHS later cited the teen’s alleged elbow strike; no charges were filed. His father has been deported.
Some states are pushing back. California passed measures banning masks and requiring visible ID for immigration agents. Illinois now allows residents to sue any officer who violates constitutional rights. Colorado’s Bureau of Investigation opened a probe after an immigration officer used a chokehold on a protester. Minnesota state and local leaders are collecting evidence in Good’s killing even as federal investigators sidelined the state.
What the government won’t say
The federal government does not publicly track how often immigration agents use neck restraints, keep people prone while handcuffed, or even detain U.S. citizens. Former officials said such incidents were rare in past years and that DHS’s 2023 bans largely codified accepted practice — a norm now broken. ProPublica compiled cases from court records, social media, and local news, and shared videos with DHS, the White House, CBP, ICE, border czar Tom Homan, and Border Patrol’s Gregory Bovino. DHS responded that agents used the least force necessary but did not explain the use of banned tactics or whether anyone was disciplined.
