A 27-year-old man from Columbia who was being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents allegedly threw an elbow and busted an agent's nose, according to federal prosecutors.
Hector Villegas-Alvarez has been charged with assaulting a federal official, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
ICE agents were conducting surveillance outside of Villegas-Alvarez's home in New Jersey on February 23 and were hoping to arrest him for entering the country illegally, according to a U.S. Justice Department news release.
When the agents surveilling the home moved to arrest Villegas-Alvarez, he allegedly physically resisted and elbowed one of the agents in the face.
The blow broke the agent’s nose and gave her a concussion. Federal prosecutors claim that the ICE agent suffered "severe post-concussion symptoms, including fainting and difficulty breathing."
The assault charge carries with it a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
Between April 6 and April 12, ICE has arrested more than 200 people in the New York City metro area, all under the directive of President Donald Trump’s "Operation Take Back America," which the Justice Department describes as "a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime."
While the Justice Department and Trump push the idea that these raids and deportations are targeted on dangerous individuals, many of the arrests thus far have been of people with no criminal history.
ICE agents have taken a Vietnamese father into custody who was brought to the U.S. as a child and had been regularly attending check-ins with the federal government. They've also rounded up foreign national students attending colleges in the U.S. who have been vocally critical of Israel's genocide in Gaza.
