Federal immigration agents working in northeast Rochester allegedly targeted a man who recently won asylum, ordering him to the ground at gunpoint.
The 43-year-old Nicaraguan man said he was clearing ice and snow outside his apartment when agents stopped him last Thursday morning. The alleged case of racial profiling is the first that local officials say they are aware of involving U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement since President Donald Trump stepped up deportation efforts.
The man has no criminal history, his attorney said. He is a former police officer who fled Central America in 2022, and won his asylum case in September.
"I understood they were basically hunting,” the man said through an interpreter. “They weren't targeting me, specifically."
He spoke to WXXI News on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation.
Trump has directed a nationwide crackdown on immigration, suspending refugee resettlement, revoking temporary protections and parole programs for people from Central America, while ramping up deportations of those who are undocumented or otherwise facing removal. In a statement Sunday, an ICE spokesperson reiterated the previously stated focus on “criminal aliens” and “investigating immigration crimes,” but said that, for the safety of officers and the public, the agency does not comment on ongoing operations.
The man lives off North Clinton Avenue, and said he was using a metal shovel to clear ice around his car shortly after 9 a.m. Thursday . Two unmarked, dark-colored SUVs with tinted windows pulled in, he said, and eight agents piled out, four from each vehicle. One, maybe two of the agents spoke Spanish.
“They told me to drop what I had in my hands and get to the ground,” he said. “I looked up and I saw that they were opening doors of the vehicle (getting out), and I saw their vest and it said ICE, so I understood immediately what was going on.”
Outdoor temperature that morning had climbed to 40 degrees, and the snow and ice had begun to melt.
“There was a lot of cold water,” he said of the area around his feet where he was ordered to lay, “but they still didn't care about that.”
His impression, he said, was that the agents targeted him, “because of the look of my face ... because I look like a Latino.” Neighborhoods in that area are home to the largest Hispanic and Latino population in the city.
City Council President Miguel Meléndez lives and works in northeast Rochester and has heard the reports of increased ICE presence across the community.
“First time I’ve heard someone being randomly profiled,” he said of the man’s encounter. “From other accounts, it’s knocking on very specific doors, looking for specific people. Not to say it hasn’t been happening, and people are just not coming forward.”
The man said one of the agents wanted him handcuffed, “but I kept asking why, why they were doing that? Because I didn’t present any danger to them. I wasn’t doing anything to them. ... I asked if there was a warrant, because I have all of my documents.
“I'm legal in the country.”
It was maybe a minute, the man said, before he was back on his feet, accompanying agents into his apartment to show them his paperwork. They asked if anyone else lived with him, he said, and left.
The city is not informed when ICE conducts operations or enforcement in the city, and Mayor Malik Evans has directed staffers not to interfere. But he has been outspoken about the chaos and unease affecting people here legally.
“What has been very concerning for us is the amount of fear that has been sowed throughout communities across this country, and including in Rochester,” Evans said, speaking last week on WXXI’s "Connections with Evan Dawson."
Meléndez echoed that concern, adding, "the perception is that Latinos specifically are being targeted. ... People think there is a lot of fear mongering, and pumping fear into the hearts and minds of our community"
In the case of the asylee, there is much at stake.
He fled his home country, he said, after being imprisoned, stalked by police and, during his last encounter with officers, stabbed in the chest. He was a member of the national police force but quit and refused to rejoin in 2018. At the time, the country was descending into a totalitarian dictatorship under President Daniel Noriega.
“I went through a hard process in my country, with a lot of pain, a lot of time in prison and a lot of scarring,” he said. “And because of the situation (Thursday), I wasn't able to sleep. ... I didn't go out, either, because I'm scared of what’s going to happen.”
New York is reportedly the hardest state in the nation to win an asylum case. Having done so, the man now can petition for his wife and four children who are still in Nicaragua, to join him here. And this fall, he can file for residency, what’s commonly known as a green card.
He said he has “faith that this will change, that this kind of pressure will decrease.” But on Friday, he called his attorney.
“I said that I was scared about bringing my kids and my wife, because this situation is really, really bad, and my family have gone through a lot of things,” he said. “Leaving my country was really hard, leaving my family and coming to this country, a great country. And I don't want my kids to go through the same situation. So I think I have to reconsider that.”
ICE spokesperson Chrissy Cuttita issued the following statement in response to media questions of whether the agency was expanding enforcement, and about its use of force policy:
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is executing its mission of identifying and removing criminal aliens. ICE is protecting the homeland through the arrest and removal of those who undermine the safety of our communities and the integrity of our immigration laws, to include those who illegally re-enter the country after being removed and those who have been ordered removed by a federal immigration judge.
“ICE is actively investigating immigration crimes in cities across the state of New York, but as a matter of policy, and for the operational security of our officers and the public’s safety, the agency does not comment on ongoing operations or announce or confirm law enforcement activities."
