A man was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers outside of a house in Oneonta Saturday, June 14.
The incident occurred between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. outside of 34 Watkins Ave.
In video obtained by The Daily Star, ICE officials are wearing police vests. No other credentials can be seen.
Oneonta Police Chief Christopher Witzenburg said Saturday that the arresting officers were ICE agents, not city police. He added that he was informed ICE was going to be in Oneonta, though not where or when, and was informed when ICE left the city. He was not given the arrestee’s name or federal charges.
It’s unclear whether the man arrested was shown a warrant. Witnesses, who asked to remain anonymous, took videos of the ICE officials speaking to the man, who was a resident of the basement apartment with a family of three others. The videos show him speaking to ICE officials, looking through papers in the trunk of his car, which was parked on the street outside the house, and then being handcuffed by an ICE agent and put in an unmarked black SUV.
Carli Ficano, a member of the Otsego Refugee Resettlement Coalition, said she was notified of the arrest by another resident of the apartment. Ficano declined to share the arrested man’s name, citing the safety of the remaining family members.
Ficano said the man was originally from Venezuela. He had legal status and was in the asylum seeking process, she said.
The Daily Star has requested information on the arrest from the ICE office in Albany.