Several Accused of Impersonating Agents Amid Trump Push on Deportations

New York Times

06-02-2025

At least three people in three states have been arrested recently on charges that they had impersonated immigration agents or police officers to threaten others amid mounting efforts by the Trump Administration to increase deportations.
On Saturday night, two students at Temple University in North Philadelphia identified themselves as 'Police and Ice agents' to security at a residence hall and disrupted a nearby dessert shop, according to university officials and the Philadelphia Police Department. One of the two students, Aidan Steigelmann, 22, was arrested and charged with impersonating an officer, the police said.
A third person, who was described as a 'former student who is no longer affiliated with the university,' also joined the two students. The episode was recorded by one of the three people involved, the university said. It was not clear what had happened inside the dessert shop.
Efforts to contact Mr. Steigelmann were not successful.
The continuing investigation into the students' behavior in the cookie store was among the latest examples of Americans threatening others based on their perceived immigration status.
Since taking office, the Trump administration expanded the powers that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency have to quickly remove some undocumented immigrants. Increased I.C.E. activity has been documented nationwide. Mr. Trump also moved to block asylum seekers from entering the country and then attempted to end birthright citizenship in a move that has since been paused.
In another case, Sean Michael-Emmrich Johnson, 33, of Huger, S.C., was arrested Monday on Sullivan's Island in connection with a traffic encounter on Jan. 29.
Video captured Mr. Johnson telling the driver of a parked vehicle, who appeared to be Hispanic, that he would help deport him. He took the driver's keys out of the ignition and claimed, without evidence, that the driver did not have a license. When the driver made a phone call and began to speak Spanish, Mr. Johnson interjected, saying, 'Don't be speaking that pig Latin in my country,' using an expletive.
Mr. Johnson called the police to report a driver operating a vehicle without a license. Officers with the Sullivan's Island Police Department arrived, but determined that it was actually Mr. Johnson who had broken the law, the police said.
Warrants for Mr. Johnson's arrest were prepared and Mr. Johnson turned himself in. He was charged with kidnapping, a felony, and impersonating a law enforcement officer, along with other misdemeanor crimes, the Sullivan's Island Police Department said in an email.
Efforts to contact Mr. Johnson were not successful.
'The driver was not charged with anything criminal or traffic related,' Glenn Meadows, the police chief, said in an email on Thursday. 'He committed no violations that would have given us a legal reason to request his operator's license.'
In Raleigh, N.C., last month, a man was charged with multiple crimes including sexual violence crimes and for impersonating a law-enforcement agent, including I.C.E., according to W.B.T.V., a local television network. In a separate incident in Durham, N.C., a fake I.C.E. van parked outside a shopping center that caters to the Hispanic community, the network reported.