Journalist Taken Away on Stretcher in Clash with Masked Agents at N.Y.C. Immigration Court

A tense confrontation unfolded inside Manhattan’s federal immigration courthouse on Tuesday, Sept. 30, when journalists were shoved and injured during an arrest operation, according to The New York Times.

Dean Moses, a video journalist for amNewYork, said he was documenting two women entering an elevator on the 12th floor of 26 Federal Plaza when masked agents followed behind. As Moses recorded, one of the agents cursed at him before forcefully shoving him out of the elevator.

“I walked into the elevator behind them, and they started screaming at me,” Moses told amNewYork. “Then they pushed me, grabbed me by my arms, and started pulling me out of the elevator. I tried to hold on, but I got shoved out.”

Witnesses reported that freelance photojournalist Olga Fedorova was also pushed to the ground. “I just knew that I had to try to get photos of whatever is happening,” she told The New York Times. “It was incredibly quick.”

A third journalist, L. Vural Elibol, a video journalist for the Turkish agency Anadolu Ajansı, was later found injured on the floor. Fedorova said his camera was still on when she saw him down: “He was covering his face and he was moaning in pain and he was unable to move.”

Colleague Mostafa Bassim told The New York Times that Elibol “couldn’t talk or, like, function at all.” He was treated by a nurse at the courthouse before being taken out on a stretcher to a nearby hospital.

“He was semiconscious, but he didn’t move from the position for 35 to 40 minutes,” Moses added.

Fedorova told The Associated Press that the journalists had been following standard instructions at the courthouse. “If they tell us to get out, to not cross a certain line, we follow their orders. In this case, it was not clear to anyone that this was a detention at all.”

A Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, Tricia McLaughlin, defended the agents in a statement to PEOPLE, saying they were “making the arrest of an illegal alien from Peru.”

“Officers were swarmed by agitators and members of the press, which obstructed operations,” McLaughlin said. “Rioters and sanctuary politicians who encourage individuals to interfere with arrests are actively creating hostile environments that put officers, detainees, and the public in harm’s way.”

She also noted that the courthouse has faced “multiple threats,” including a letter with a suspicious white powder in August and referenced last week’s shooting at a Dallas ICE office.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul sharply criticized the agents’ actions on X, writing that federal officers were abusing “law-abiding immigrants and the reporters telling their stories,” adding: “What the hell are we doing here?”