A 19-year-old from the Bronx, New York, was bleeding and required stitches after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation accidentally targeted him, NBC News reported Friday (local time).
The incident happened Wednesday afternoon at Gun Hill Road and Hull Avenue. Cell phone footage showed ICE agents struggling and detaining the teenager. The report added that once agents realized they had made a mistake, they dropped him off, bloodied and bruised, in the park.
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The victim, Jeury Concepcion, told NBC New York that he also suffered a concussion as a result of the encounter with federal immigration agents. The incident was captured on several videos obtained by News 4. One clip shows a federal agent sprinting toward Concepcion, gun drawn, as he stood outside a barber shop on Hull Avenue.
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The teenager said he was stopped by several ICE agents who asked him to stop and later brought him to the ground and handcuffed him.
Footage of the incident also showed ICE agents lifting the 19-year-old off the ground as he bled. The agents then led Concepcion away, pinning him against the car before finally placing him in the vehicle and driving away.
During the drive, the 19-year-old was asked for his ID and cell phone, after which federal agents realized their mistake. In an interview with NBC New York, Concepcion said, “He told me he was sorry for confusing me with someone else and that it would never happen again and that he didn’t want me to think that they did it,” adding, “And I told him I would report them.”
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The youth added that agents later dropped him off at a park he did not know; however, he was eventually reunited with his mother.
The incident comes amid threats by border czar Tom Homan to deploy more immigration agents across New York as state lawmakers consider legislation backed by Gov. Kathy Hochula that would limit local cooperation with federal immigration operations.
ICE agents continue their crackdown
This is not the first time that ICE agents have dealt with individuals in the US. Since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House for a second term in 2025, his administration has stepped up efforts to deport illegal immigrants and launched an overall crackdown on immigration in the country.
In early January, multiple ICE agents detained at least four children, including a 5-year-old, from a Minneapolis-area school district. A five-year-old boy, Liam Conejo Ramos, and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, were detained and held for more than a week at a facility in Dilley, Texas, after they were taken into custody outside their home in suburban Minneapolis.
In a separate incident in March, California Democrats attacked ICE after a viral video showed agents using “excessive force” while detaining two people at San Francisco International Airport. Viral footage showed the woman crying and falling to the ground as officers took her into custody, with her daughter crying nearby.
ICE also came under fire after a Jan. 22 incident in Minneapolis in which a 2-year-old child, identified as CRTV, was taken into federal custody along with her father, Elvis Tipano-Echeverria, after agents approached their vehicle.
The family claimed officers entered their backyard and driveway without permission, broke a window while the child was inside and refused to allow the father to hand the toddler over to her mother. They also claimed the ICE vehicle lacked a child safety seat. Although a court ordered the child’s release, she was taken to Texas before eventually being reunited with her mother.
The latest incident in the Bronx adds to growing scrutiny of ICE operations under the Trump administration, as multiple cases involving child detention and allegations of excessive force continue to draw criticism from families, activists and local officials across the country.
Key things
- The incident underscores the increasing scrutiny of ICE operations and their impact on immigrant communities.
- The use of excessive force by federal agents raises serious concerns about their training and accountability.
- Victims of illegal detention are increasingly speaking out to highlight the need for immigration enforcement reform.
