Reactions were mounting on Monday as news surfaced about an incident involving two Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who tackled a rape survivor to the ground just moments after she testified in a New Jersey courtroom.
David J. Bier, Cato Institute Director of Immigration Studies, shared an excerpt from an Atlantic report on X about an incident last year involving a woman who had survived rape and told her story in court about her perpetrator and ex-boyfriend, who she was seeking a restraining order against after he put her in a chokehold and sexually assaulted her, causing her to lose consciousness. When she stepped outside the courthouse, she was suddenly tackled to the ground by two plainclothes ICE officers.
Several public figures and prominent voices online spoke out in response.
"Insane misogynist military cosplay," actor and activist Carrie Coon wrote on X.
"This regime is evil," Matt Kovach, economist at the Purdue Daniels School of Business, wrote on X.
"Mass deportations make us all less safe, as abusers and exploiters know that threats to call ICE will keep their victims silent," Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, wrote on X.
"Abolish ICE," Mehdi Hasan, founder and CEO of news outlet Zeteo, wrote on X.
