Neigbours formed a human chain around an immigrant man and his son to protect them from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who tried to take them into custody.
A video shared online shows residents in Hermitage, Tennessee, surrounding the man’s van as the man sat in it with his 12-year-old son.
An ICE vehicle had blocked the man in his driveway and, as there was no way out, the man and his son chose to sit in the van for hours, resulting in a standoff with ICE agents who did not have legal authority to remove them by force.
After a while, neighbors began to check on the man and his son as they sat in the driveway.
“We made sure they had water, they had food, we put gas back in the vehicle when they were getting low just to make sure they were OK,” neighbor Felishadae Young told WTVF-TV.
A crowd soon gathered and after four hours, neighbors decided to come together and form a human chain around the van, hoping to protect the man and son when they ran inside their house.
ICE agents with administrative warrants can detain someone, but they cannot forcibly remove someone from their home or vehicle, WTVF-TV reports. Because of this, the neighbors’ human chain would not be considered an obstruction of justice.
Video of the incident was shared by Nashville Noticias, an organization that provides news and information to the Hispanic community in the Nashville area.
During the standoff, a local lawyer – a Nigerian named Daniel Ayoadeyoon – was contacted and came to the scene.
He said: “There were two immigration officials sort of bullying a family inside of their own vehicle, telling them that they had an administrative warrant, which isn’t the same thing as a judicial warrant, and trying to harass them and fear them into coming out.
“They were saying, if you don’t come out, we’re going to arrest you, we’re going to arrest your 12-year-old son, and that’s just not legal, it’s not the right law.”
Watch the video below.
