ICE Agent Throws Photographer to the Floor Causing Head Injury

The chief videographer of the Anadolu news agency was taken to hospital after he was shoved to the ground by an ICE agent while covering migrant court hearings at 26 Federal Plaza in New York City.

Footage of L. Vural Elibol falling to the ground was captured by freelance photographer Stephanie Keith and the skirmish came after ICE agents forcibly removed one photographer from an elevator.

Two ICE agents came from behind Elibol and threw him and another photographer to the floor. Elibol was seen clutching his head in discomfort. A nurse tended to him until an ambulance arrived and he was stretchered away. Paramedics put him in a neck brace and wheeled him out of the building. He has since been discharged from hospital and given pain medicine.

“I was trying to get the video and someone yanked me and threw me to the ground,” Elibol tells Reuters.

The Homeland Security Assistant Secretary tells NBC News that the agents had a right to defend themselves, saying they were being “swarmed by members of the press, which obstructed operations.”

“Officers repeatedly told the crowd of agitators and journalists to get back, move, and get out of the elevator,” says Tricia McLaughlin. “Rioters and sanctuary politicians who encourage individuals to interfere with arrests are actively creating hostile environments that put officers, detainees, and the public in harm’s way.”

amNewYork police bureau chief Dean Moses was the photographer who entered the lift with the ICE agents, his presence sparking the fracas.

“I walked into the elevator behind them, and they started screaming at me, ‘Get the f–k out,” he tells amNewYork. “Then they pushed me, grabbed me by my arms, and started pulling me out of the elevator. I tried to hold on, but I got shoved out.”

Moses says that in the melee, Elibol hit the back of his head and was seriously injured. “He was semiconscious, but he didn’t move from the position for 35 to 40 minutes,” Moses says.

Photojournalists have been documenting immigration court hearings at 26 Federal Plaza for months, exercising their First Amendment rights to freedom of the press.

However, Moses says that tensions have been rising. “It’s not just between ICE and the photographers. It’s between ICE, photographers, and other staff members,” Moses tells amNewYork. “It’s also among the immigrants who go there. It’s reached such a boiling point, I’m surprised this hasn’t happened sooner.”

New York Governor Kathy Hochul criticized the incident. “This abuse of law-abiding immigrants and the reporters telling their stories must end,” she writes on X.

Since President Donald Trump came into power, he has made immigration enforcement one of his administration’s main policies. Under the Republican leader, ICE has ramped up detainments and deportations by arresting migrants as they appear in court for their immigration cases.