BY BEN VERDE
Advocates and elected offi cials
are calling for the federal government
to release an immigrant
who was violently arrested by Immigration
and Customs Enforcement
offi cers at her place of work
on Flatbush Avenue on March 1.
In a video captured by her coworker,
ICE agents can be seen
throwing Maria de los Angeles
Pimental to the ground and handcuffi
ng her after entering the
restaurant she works in without
a warrant and pepper-spraying
her — a move community leaders
compared to the “Gestapo” tactics
of Nazi Germany.
“This is not about ‘bad hombres’
this is about Nazism, this
is about white supremacy,” said
Public Advocate Juumane Williams
at a rally outside La Cabaña
on Flatbush Avenue, where Pimental
works and was arrested.
“I don’t want to mince words on
the Gestapo police who are walking
COURIER L 12 IFE, MARCH 13-19, 2020
around on our streets kidnapping
our neighbors.”
Community leaders further
blasted the agency for entering
the restaurant without a judicial
warrant and not explaining what
was happening to Pimental in
Spanish before she was arrested.
Family members of Pimental,
a mother of three from the Dominican
Republic who arrived in
America last March, say they are
devastated by their situation.
“I wouldn’t wish this on anyone
else,” said her sister Yeiny
Sanz.
The violent arrest comes in
the midst of growing outrage over
aggressive ICE tactics in New
York, which have recently included
agents shooting a 26-yearold
man in the face while arresting
another man in Gravesend,
and walking the streets of the
Bronx with a large rifl e.
State Senator Zellnor Myrie,
whose district includes La Cabaña,
said ICE has been targeting
his district — where roughly
two-thirds of residents hail from
another country — with particular
aggression, even stopping passengers
of dollar vans to check for
identifi cation.
Myrie stressed the importance
of knowing your rights
when dealing with immigration
agents, who require a judicial
warrant to enter private property,
not an administrative warrant.
“They are under no obligation
to open the door,” Myrie said.
“They can not just barge in they
can not come in, you have due
process if you are in the United
States no matter what your citizenship
situation is.”
ICE spokesperson Rachel
Yong Yow claims Pimental —
who, she said, has been on the
agency’s radar since a Feb. 25
bar fi ght that ended in her arrest
— had overstayed her work visa,
which ended Sept. 22. Yong Yow
said agents reverted to using pepper
spray after Pimental resisted
arrest.
FED UP!
Yeiny Sanz, the sister of Maria de los Angeles Pimental, speaks at a rally on Monday. Photo by Todd Maisel
Community leaders blast
feds for violent ICE arrest
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