A video made by protesters shows the moment a pickup truck drives into sit-in demonstrators blocking the street entrance to an ICE detention center in Rhode Island. A crowd starts banging on the car then gets pepper-sprayed.
Protesters had gathered at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) center in Central Falls, Rhode Island, on Wednesday evening, with dozens of activists blocking the entrance to the center’s parking lot.
Organized by Never Again Action, a newly-formed Jewish group protesting US immigration policy, the act of civil disobedience quickly turned ugly. Footage shows a truck driving through a line of sitting protesters in an attempt to enter the blocked entrance.
The protesters then swarm around the vehicle, shouting and pulling people out of the way. Never Again Action claimed that the driver of the vehicle was an ICE officer.
“Tonight we experienced a tiny sample of the violence ICE uses on our immigrant neighbors every day. An ICE guard drove his truck into our peaceful #JewsAgainstICE protest, then other guards came out and pepper sprayed the crowd,” the group tweeted.
Never Again Action said several people were treated for injuries and at least one person was taken to a nearby hospital. It said “dozens” of people also received medical aid after being doused with pepper spray.
Protests against ICE have sprung up across the country as the agency carries out raids on suspected illegal immigrants.
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