
Video shows a Venezuelan man tackled in a New Hampshire courthouse. He was then sent by ICE to Texas.
A Venezuelan man facing misdemeanor charges in New Hampshire was tackled inside a courthouse by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who also knocked over an older bystander in the process. The man has since been detained in Texas, according to online records.
Recently released security camera footage from Nashua Circuit Court shows two agents throwing Arnuel Marquez Colmenarez to the floor and handcuffing him on Feb. 20. An older man using a cane to walk also ended up flat on his back.
Marquez Colmenarez, 33, had been charged on Feb. 9 with drunken driving, driving without a license and failing to provide information after an accident. He was heading to his arraignment on those charges when he was apprehended, Nashua Police say.
Jared Neff, the court liaison officer for the Hudson Police Department, said he was in the prosecutor's office when he heard a loud commotion near the elevators.
"There were voices yelling 'Stop!' and then a loud 'bang' which sounded like people had fallen on the ground and were actively fighting and struggling," he wrote in an incident report.
Neff said he helped restrain Marquez Colmenarez, whom he described as actively resisting attempts to handcuff him. The agents were working on orders to detain immigrants in the country illegally, Neff said. They told Neff they had tried to detain Marquez Colmenarez quietly in the elevator, but he had fled.
A judge later issued a bench warrant after he failed to appear for his arraignment. The prosecutor handling the case wasn't contacted by federal agents before the arraignment and didn't witness the arrest, police said.
As of Monday, Colmenaraz was being held at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Texas, according to an online database. The agency did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Immigration officers were a growing presence at courthouses during President Trump's first term, prompting pushback from judges and other local officials. The president has gone further in his second term.
As part of Mr. Trump's
immigration crackdown
, his administration in its first days
repealed a policy
initially put in place by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2011, which directed agents to avoid making arrests in "sensitive" locations like schools, houses of worship and hospitals, and expanded under former President Joe Biden to include courthouses and other places where immigrants may be trying to "access essential services."
Under current policy, immigration officials can make arrests "in or near courthouses when they have credible information that leads them to believe the targeted alien(s) is or will be present" and as long as they are not prohibited from doing so by state or local law. After the Biden-era rule was terminated, the Homeland Security Department issued a statement saying the new Trump administration "will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense."
In Boston,
an ICE agent was held in contempt
last month after he detained a suspect while he was on trial. The man detained, originally from the Dominican Republic and living with family in Massachusetts at the time, was on trial for allegedly pretending to be someone else in his driver's license application, CBS News Boston reported. The man's lawyers said ICE agents did not identify themselves and put him in a pickup truck as he was leaving court. He was taken into custody and detained in Plymouth, Massachusetts, according to the station.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
California City Scraps Its ICE Contract as Protests Rage
A California city is scrapping a contract it had with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security to house federal immigration detainees amid clashes between law enforcement and protesters in Los Angeles. The City of Glendale announced Sunday it is terminating the deal it has maintained since 2007, which allowed federal detainees to be held at the Glendale Police Department facility, after acknowledging that public perception of the arrangement has 'become divisive.' The move to cancel the ICE contract arrives amid a weekend of protests and rioting in Los Angeles against a series of Trump-backed immigration crackdowns across the city. California Governor Gavin Newsom accused the president of escalating the unrest by deploying hundreds of National Guard troops to L.A. and posting inflammatory social media comments. Glendale was accused of violating California's sanctuary state law, which prohibits local law enforcement from using resources for federal immigration enforcement, by housing the federal detainees. At least 82 people detained by ICE have been held at the Glendale Police Department facility since January, according to NBC News Los Angeles. 'Despite the transparency and safeguards the City has upheld, the City recognizes that public perception of the ICE contract—no matter how limited or carefully managed, no matter the good—has become divisive,' the City of Glendale said in a statement. 'And while opinions on this issue may vary—the decision to terminate this contract is not politically driven. It is rooted in what this City stands for: public safety, local accountability, and trust.' The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast. The city also rejected allegations raised during a council meeting last week that detainees held at the police facility were denied food and water for hours. Officials insisted all immigration detainees were provided a bed and access to medical care. Glendale said its police department will continue to abstain from immigration enforcement and will remain fully compliant with California's SB 54 sanctuary laws. Andres Kwon, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, previously accused Glendale of violating the state's sanctuary laws by housing ICE detainees. 'Ultimately and effectively, this Glendale contract with ICE is helping the Trump administration carry out its mass deportation agenda that is racist and has abused countless people's constitutional, civil, and human rights,' Kwon told NBC News Los Angeles.
Yahoo
38 minutes ago
- Yahoo
L.A. Burns
Riots in Los Angeles: President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard in Los Angeles following three days of clashes between protesters and police. The riots were set off when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided workplaces in pursuit of immigrants here illegally. Most of the violence has so far been contained to downtown L.A. There, rioters have set self-driving Waymo taxis on fire and vandalized buildings. Protests are also happening some 15 miles south in Paramount, to the east of Compton and north of Long Beach. Jim McDonnell, the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), implied the protests were not occurring organically and that the violence should be attributed to "anarchists" and "people who do this all the time." More than 150 people have been arrested in the L.A. protests since Friday, with 60 arrested in San Francisco (where similar protests are happening, but with less damage so far). At one point, it looks like the LAPD shot a journalist with a rubber bullet: "Trump's order for the troops was the first time since 1965 that a president had activated a state's National Guard force for a domestic operation without a state governor's request for the purposes of quelling unrest or enforcing the law," reports The New York Times. The paper quoted California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, saying Trump's move "is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions"; he added that "this is the wrong mission and will erode public trust." (As for what he thinks the right mission is, I guess I just haven't listened to enough of his podcasts to be able to say.) It's hard to know where this goes: Whether it escalates further, whether the National Guard's presence will actually quell the unrest, whether public sentiment toward deportations changes based on the conduct of the rioters, and how much property damage Angelenos are willing to tolerate. One thing is clear: The Trump administration appears to relish the opportunity to send in the National Guard. And another: The senseless property destruction that has become commonplace at such events since the summer of George Floyd means normal, uninvolved people sometimes lose their livelihoods when cities descend into chaos. Shouldn't she be right now? Greta Thunberg and a group of 11 other activists—including Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham and Rima Hassan, a French-Palestinian member of the European Parliament—set sail from Sicily about a week ago and have made their way to Gaza in an attempt to deliver aid to people there. Along the way they picked up four Libyan migrants whose own boat was sinking and who reportedly feared being nabbed by the Libyan coast guard. When the crew were about 120 miles off the coast of Gaza, the Israeli military apprehended the ship. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the organizers of the trip, declared in a statement that the activists were "kidnapped by Israeli forces." "The ship was unlawfully boarded, its unarmed civilian crew abducted, and its life-saving cargo—including baby formula, food and medical supplies—confiscated," said the group. Israel's foreign ministry disagrees, derogatorily calling the boat a "selfie yacht" full of "celebrities." "I urge all my friends, family and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me and the others as soon as possible," said Thunberg in a recorded message. (Presumably she means to get the Swedish government to pressure the Israeli government to release her.) Human rights groups in Israel say the country has "no legal authority" to seize the boat, since it was in international waters. "An attempt last month by Freedom Flotilla to reach Gaza by sea failed after another of the group's vessels was attacked by two drones while sailing in international waters off Malta, organizers said," reports the Associated Press. Israel argues that these "aid shipments" don't amount to significant help for Gazans. "While Greta and others attempted to stage a media provocation whose sole purpose was to gain publicity—and which included less than a single truckload of aid—more than 1,200 aid trucks have entered Gaza from Israel within the past two weeks, and in addition, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has distributed close to 11 million meals directly to civilians in Gaza," the foreign ministry claimed. The state Senate is expected to vote today on a bill that would legalize assisted suicide for all New Yorkers. The Medical Aid in Dying Act would be available to patients whose doctors say they have incurable conditions with less than six months left to live. The state Assembly has already passed the bill. So if it passes the Senate, it will head to Gov. Kathy Hochul's desk for either a signature or a veto. Two separate doctors might sign off on a ruling that a patient has just six months to live in order for the patient to legally gain access to these drugs. "If either determines the patient 'may lack decision-making capacity' for any reason, they are required to refer them to a mental health professional for further evaluation," reports Gothamist. "Otherwise, a mental health check is not required." " I think my colleagues have come to the conclusion that medical aid in dying isn't so much about ending a person's life but shortening their deaths," state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a Manhattan Democrat, told Gothamist. As I've said before, we're barreling toward Ättestupa, toward a world in which humans design when and how others come into this world as well as when and how they leave it. I worry important things are lost when we try to supplant our creator, but your mileage may vary. HERE FOR THIS! In many ways, consumer goods have improved over time and we can afford basic household supplies much more easily than we used to. But in other areas, there has been a degradation of quality. Nancy French has a nice thread illustrating this: "The wildly popular Nutella competitor El Mordjene has been banned by the European Union," reports The New Yorker in "How a Hazelnut Spread Became a Sticking Point in Franco-Algerian Relations." "Senate Republicans intend to propose revised tax and health-care provisions to President Donald Trump's $3 trillion signature economic package this week, shrugging off condemnations of the legislation by Elon Musk as they rush to enact it before July 4," reports Bloomberg. The post L.A. Burns appeared first on
Yahoo
38 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Glendale ends ICE contract, will no longer hold detainees
Amid rising tensions over immigration raids in the Los Angeles area, the city of Glendale announced Sunday night it has ended its agreement with the federal government to house detainees captured by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 'After careful consideration, the City of Glendale has decided to end its agreement with U.S. Homeland Security/ICE to house federal immigration detainees,' the city said in a statement posted online. 'This local decision reflects our core values: public safety, transparency, and community trust.' The decision came after The Times reported that Glendale had continued its 2007 ICE contract and agreed to house detainees at its city jail despite California passing SB 54, known as the California Values Act, which prohibited local and state municipalities from using funds for federal immigration enforcement purposes, including the use of jail facilities. The landmark law made California the first sanctuary state in the nation. Other municipalities terminated their contracts after then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB 54. But Glendale's then-Police Chief Robert Castro, who opposed the law, did not. At the time, the city manager warned against nixing the contract in a bid to maintain a good relationship with federal authorities. Read more: Immigration raids roil L.A., dozens of people detained. What we know so far In its statement Sunday, the city maintained that its agreement remained in compliance with state law. "Nevertheless, despite the transparency and safeguards the City has upheld, the City recognizes that public perception of the ICE contract — no matter how limited or carefully managed, no matter the good — has become divisive," the city said. The city said ending the contract would make it difficult for some families to visit those being detained by ICE. Sarah Houston, an immigration lawyer at the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, raised the issue at a city council meeting last week after learning that a client who was held in Glendale had been without food for nine hours and was due to be transferred to multiple facilities. She questioned why Glendale was adhering to a decades-old agreement that runs afoul of SB 54, while city council officials defended the decision. 'After the horrific raids and violations this weekend, it is all the more important that our local communities stand together to protect our immigrant brothers and sisters as intended in the California Values Act,' she said after the city's announcement. Glendale has held at least 82 individuals for ICE since January, according to Andrés Kwon, a senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. 'With a population that is more than 50% immigrant, the city of Glendale should be a beacon for immigrants' rights,' Kwon said. 'As we've witnessed masked ICE and federal agents abducting Angelenos, locking up entire families in basements, and separating families — how could the city of Glendale ensure that the Angelenos it held for ICE weren't unconstitutionally detained?' Amigos Unidos for Immigrant Justice, an immigrant rights advocacy group in Glendale, said in a statement that ending the contract is the "right step toward rebuilding trust" in the city. "As we move forward, Glendale is our home, our community, and our responsibility. We believe deeply in protecting what makes Glendale strong: a commitment to fairness, compassion, and civic integrity," the group said. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.