The 23-year-old was pulled out of the van, placed in handcuffs, and detained for about 25 minutes while the agent searched him. When the agents finally found his ID confirming his citizenship, the agents let him go — without offering any explanation or apology.
A 23-year-old electrician from Brentwood is speaking out after a disturbing encounter with federal immigration agents left him handcuffed and shaken, despite being a U.S. citizen.
Elzon Lemus says he was on the job, driving in a work van with his co-worker in Westbury when they were pulled over by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. The incident was recorded on Lemus’ phone.
“What’s up, guys? Can I see your ID, please?” an agent asks in the video.
When Lemus questions why they’re being stopped, the agent replies vaguely, “Cause you look like someone I’m looking for. Can I see your ID?”
Lemus continues, “Who are you looking for exactly? Because it’s definitely not me.”
The agent then warns him, “This is going to go one of two ways here. I need to see your ID — if you’re not the guy I’m looking for, you’re not the guy I’m looking for. But we need your ID.”
When Lemus continues to question why he’s being stopped the agent escalates and says “If we don’t get your ID we are going to need to figure out another way to ID you and that may not work out well for you.”
Law enforcement is not permitted to randomly pull over vehicles. They provided no justification. This is clearly illegal.
“You look like someone we’re looking for” will get them pretty far in the courts. They don’t have to tell you who that person is, but by the time you sue and you’re going through the court process, they’ll find someone on their list who looks like you so that they can say “oh yeah it was this guy we were looking for, we promise” and the case gets dismissed.
Cops can always find a reason to pull you over. Also, they have no obligation to tell you why they did so. 1 mph over the speed limit? Valid traffic stop. You slowly drifted from the right side of the lane to the left side? Valid traffic stop in the eyes of the law.
Is it bullshit? Yes. Illegal? No.
Is the driver in the OP still required to provide his license when pulled over?
Yes.