ICE are traitors, just like their supporters, just like Kristi Noem, just like Stephen Miller, just like J. D. Vance, and just like Donald Trump. Please God, may there be a reckoning.
An Iraq War veteran who earned a Purple Heart says he ended up on the ground in handcuffs and in a federal holding cell for eight hours simply because he was standing nearby and watching an ICE arrest.
William Vermie says he wasn’t protesting or interfering. He was on a public sidewalk, observing as agents detained two people. According to him, the situation escalated when officers started forcing everyone back.
“They were bringing out those two young boys, and then the agents started moving down the sidewalk, shoving people and telling them to get off,” Vermie explained. “I didn’t move fast enough, and they shoved me.”
Within moments, he says, he was being cuffed. He tried to keep his balance, but someone grabbed his leg, and he went down. Several officers piled on top of him before putting him in restraints.
From there, he was taken to the Whipple federal building and held for eight hours. During that time, he says he was never given access to a lawyer, despite asking for one.
“They gave me water and bathroom breaks. I even got a Band-Aid when I asked for it,” Vermie said. “But when you’re being detained, a lawyer matters a lot more than a Band-Aid.”
His family hired attorney John Chitwood, who went to the building and waited for hours. Chitwood says he was told he couldn’t see his client because Vermie had not requested him by name something Vermie had no way of doing because he hadn’t been allowed to contact anyone.
Chitwood, who has represented people accused of serious violent crimes, said he had never seen this kind of deliberate obstruction.
“This is a combat-wounded veteran who served his country honorably,” Chitwood said. “If this is how the federal government treats someone like him, how are they treating everyone else? It’s shameful. It’s un-American.”
That’s the part that’s hard to ignore. This wasn’t an undocumented immigrant, a suspect, or someone accused of anything at all. This was a bystander and a decorated veteran who says he was shoved, tackled, detained, and cut off from legal counsel for simply being in the wrong place.
For an agency that often wraps itself in the language of patriotism, this incident raises an uncomfortable question. If this is how they treat a Purple Heart recipient in broad daylight, what happens to people who don’t have a uniform, a medal, or a lawyer waiting outside?
At some point, it stops looking like law enforcement and starts looking like power being exercised for its own sake.
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