Newsweek
A lawyer confronted Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officers—a branch of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—in a new TikTok video that has drawn more than 16 million views on the platform.
James Rivera, a Virginia-based immigration lawyer, filmed and posted a video on Monday in which several HSI agents were searching for his client.
“ICE showing up five deep and armed at one of my clients house, claiming to be doing a welfare check on a minor waiting for a Green Card,” Rivera wrote in the caption.
In the video, Rivera pulled up in front of a house with five people standing in the driveway. One of the agents was leaning against the house.
Rivera and the agents asked for and exchanged identification and the HSI agent explained that they were waiting for Rivera’s client.
In a phone interview with Newsweek, Rivera said that the agents’ stated purpose was a welfare check to investigate potential child trafficking, to which Rivera responded that he had never heard of ICE or HSI conducting welfare checks, “so this must be a new policy.”
According to Rivera, the agent said the investigations should have been happening all along.
“I’ve never heard of it, ever. Ever ever,” Rivera told Newsweek.
“Unaccompanied minor being checked on by Homeland Security Investigations to make sure they are OK? I told them she is OK. He was like, ‘Well, we need to hear from her’.”
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