ICE Agents Threaten Rhode Island Judge and Handcuff High School Intern
Federal immigration agents menaced a Rhode Island Superior Court judge and a student intern on Thursday following a botched detention attempt.
The incident occurred outside the Licht Judicial Complex in Providence, where the high school intern was working. According to WPRI 12 News, courthouse security had previously intervened after noticing an individual photographing the intern. When confronted, the photographer identified himself as an ICE agent before being ordered to cease his activities.
Unnerved by the federal agents stalking him, the intern accepted a ride home from Superior Court Judge Joseph McBurney. However, as they attempted to leave, ICE agents swarmed the judge’s vehicle, threatening to smash the windows if the occupants did not exit.
The head of courthouse security intervened, instructing the judge and the intern to remain inside the vehicle. Despite this, bystander video captured the intern being briefly handcuffed and taken into custody. Following a heated dispute, the agents admitted they had misidentified their target and departed the area.
The Department of Homeland Security addressed the confrontation in a statement to the Daily Beast. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated that Homeland Security Investigations had been pursuing a child predator.
“Officers briefly questioned someone who resembled the target,” McLaughlin said. “He was never arrested or taken into custody.”
The chaotic scene unfolded while the Alliance to Mobilize Resistance was protesting ICE operations nearby, leading to a tense standoff between federal agents and local residents. Footage from the scene shows one agent aiming a taser at a demonstrator before retreating to a vehicle and leaving.
Witnesses expressed alarm at the agents' conduct. “Clearly, it seems that if [ICE] had the wrong person, then they didn’t really know who they were looking for, which calls into question whether they had a legal right to seize anybody,” attorney Miriam Weizenbaum told WPRI. “It’s very frightening.”
A statement released following the incident condemned the agents' actions as “outrageous and indefensible,” noting that the event could have devastated a young person's life.
“Rhode Islanders should not have to fear federal agents operating with such reckless disregard for the law and human dignity,” the statement read. It further characterized the incident not as a harmless error, but as the direct result of “callous and chaotic policies by the Trump Administration,” calling the agency's lack of due diligence “shameful.”