Video of ICE takedown in Hempstead shows Long Island man hitting head against brick wall

A video of a handcuffed Honduran immigrant shows his head violently hitting a brick wall while being taken into custody by two armed immigration agents last month in Hempstead Village. It has shocked his relatives and advocates, who say they've seen escalating force in such encounters on Long Island and elsewhere.

The man, identified by Newsday as Isai Santos Caceras, 35, of Uniondale, is seen collapsing to the ground after his head hits the wall of a supermarket.

One of the agents is heard in a separate video telling a bystander to call police for an ambulance.

"I can’t believe it, man," the bystander is heard saying to the agents as Caceras lies motionless on the ground. "He’s not an animal."

ICE on camera

The incident on Jan. 5 in Hempstead is part of what advocates call a growing trend of brutality by immigration agents that has provoked shock, outrage and mass demonstrations across the country, especially after the fatal shootings last month of two U.S. citizens — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — by federal agents in Minneapolis.

The connection in these violent and deadly confrontations is they were both caught on video by bystanders using cellphones, which has brought intense new scrutiny to the conduct of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. As federal agents, they are protected from local government monitoring and so far have not shared body camera footage of their arrests.

The video of Caceras’ detainment was posted by Islip Forward, a nonprofit organization that has been tracking ICE actions on Long Island. On its website, the group alleged agents "used an individual's head as a battering ram into a brick wall."

"This is exactly what we have been saying has been going on since Jan. 23, 2025, when we had first documented a sighting in Brentwood," said Ahmad Perez, head of the advocacy group Islip Forward, referring to an ICE action days after President Donald Trump took office last year.

"We’ve had federal agents who were armed, receiving poor training, conducting incidents of extreme use of force in our own backyards," he said. "We literally have armed agents who are accountable to no one terrorizing communities every single day."

ICE did not respond to numerous requests for comment.

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has defended the methods used by ICE agents, calling them "absolute heroes" and "patriots" who have suffered verbal abuse and "unprecedented violence" as they capture "domestic terrorists" and "deranged individuals."

In a phone interview from the Adams County Correctional Facility in Natchez, Mississippi, where he was sent by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Caceras said in Spanish the agents that Monday morning in Hempstead were "very aggressive."

"When I hit my head, I couldn’t see anybody," he said in the 14-minute interview. "It was like I lost my vision for the moment. It was like everything was dark."

"They got upset because I ran," he said. Then, handcuffed behind his back and held by the agents, "One of them pushed me and I went into the wall."

He said he got medical attention days later.

One of Caceras’ cousins has decided to speak out about the Hempstead incident, despite what she said were her fears of repercussion from the government.

Erica, who did not want her last name used, said Caceras told her by phone from jail that at the time of the arrest he was trying to tell the agents he has legal immigration status, including a work permit.

"When his head hit the brick wall that is something that I don’t want to see as a family member. Even him on the floor and how his legs kind of folded — it’s just something disgusting and heartless to see, honestly," she said.

A national debate

The Minneapolis deaths, along with allegations of other abuse by ICE, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other agencies, have set off a national debate, including in Congress, about Trump’s aggressive mass deportation campaign and the military-style tactics of some of the agents.

Trump says his deportation campaign is targeting dangerous, violent criminals, though studies show most of those detained, such as Caceras, have no criminal record.

ICE abuses nationwide "are unprecedented," said Muzaffar Chishti, an attorney and policy expert at the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

"That's the narrative, that you are licensed to do anything and there will be no retribution. That is what is creating this aggressive behavior of ICE officers," Chishti said. 

Advocates from other immigrant groups say there are more cases of alleged ICE abuse on Long Island.

In Flanders in November, agents smashed two windows of a car to get an immigrant sitting inside, said Minerva Perez, executive director of OLA of the East End.

In Huntington in September, Jonathan Interiano, 30, a native of El Salvador, was taken to Huntington Hospital following an apparent struggle with ICE agents. His relatives said he was detained outside a convenience store near the Huntington Station public library. He was released from the hospital several hours later into ICE custody.

In the wake of the Minneapolis killings, Democrats in Congress are holding up funding for the Department of Homeland Security as they demand reforms to ICE. Trump has removed the agent leading the department’s "surge" in Minnesota, Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, and replaced him with "border czar" Tom Homan.

Working in the U.S.

Caceras came to the United States without legal immigration papers two decades ago when he was about 15 to support his family in Honduras, Erica said. He has held blue-collar jobs since. He told Newsday he has worked for a company for the last 10 years cleaning supermarkets. He does the 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift, when the stores are closed.

He has a longtime girlfriend whom he supports financially along with her son, Erica said.

Though he initially came to the United States illegally, Caceras now has a legal work permit, a valid Social Security card, and a pending application for a U visa, Erica said. That visa is given to immigrants who are victims of certain crimes, suffer mental or physical abuse, or assist law enforcement officials in the investigation of the crime.

A pending U visa does not protect an immigrant from possible deportation, immigration attorneys said.

Caceras has no criminal record, according to the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office and checks of databases by Newsday.

He told Newsday he had returned from work the Monday morning of his arrest, ate breakfast, then headed out to go to a physical therapy session for injuries from a car crash. 

As he waited for a public bus, ICE agents spotted him and headed toward him. Frightened, he ran and stumbled to the ground, he said. The agents grabbed him and handcuffed him.

The video shows Caceras yelling "no" as he gets dragged by the two agents from a paved area onto a cement sidewalk next to a brick building.

On the video, someone is heard yelling to the agents as they drag Caceras, "Excuse me, hey, can I get his phone?"

Caceras’ foot appears to get tangled up with the feet of one of the agents as he gets pulled onto the sidewalk. As Caceras’ body is moved headfirst by the agents toward the wall, the first agent is heard saying, "You try to trip me again?"

Caceras' head then smashes against the wall and he collapses to the sidewalk. "Oh, come on guys," the bystander said. "I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it, come on."

The second agent said to the first, who is now crouched over the motionless Caceras, "You got the phone?"

The first responded, "No, I do not."

The second agent is then seen running off.

"I can’t believe it man," the bystander said. "He’s not an animal. Come on guys."

Detained in Mississippi

A second video apparently taken by the same bystander was posted to Facebook pages and other sites. Erica and Islip Forward do not know the identity of the person who shot the videos or the order in which they were taken.

In the second video, Caceras is seen lying on the ground in a paved area as the two agents try to lift him up.

"You’re hurting the guy," the bystander is heard saying. "Why they grab him like that, like he’s a piece of [expletive]?

As they pick up Caceras, who appears conscious though his legs are limp, the second agent says, "All right, then call the police so they can send somebody, get an ambulance. You call the police?"

"No, you call them," the bystander said. "You hurt him. I can’t believe it, man. Come on."

In the Newsday interview, Caceras said the agents eventually brought him to a firehouse and took his official documents, including his work permit and Social Security card.

His relatives learned about his detainment that night as the video spread rapidly on local-focused social media sites monitoring ICE activity, Erica said.

Caceras was taken to immigration offices in Manhattan for a day or so and then transferred to an ICE detention facility in New Jersey. The day before his first court appearance, scheduled for Jan. 20, Caceras was transferred to the jail in Mississippi, Erica said.

His attorney, Edward Gunning, of Garden City, said he is trying to get Caceras released from jail based on his U visa application. He confirmed Caceras has a valid Social Security number and work permit. His next court date is Wednesday.

The family has received no information from authorities about Caceras, Erica said.

A surge in ICE agents

Chishti attributed the sharp rise in alleged violence by ICE to a combination of pressure from the Trump administration to meet a quota of 3,000 arrests of immigrants a day, the hiring of thousands of inexperienced agents, and a lack of proper training. ICE is now one of the largest federal law enforcement agencies, with 22,000 agents, up from about 10,000 a year ago.

While most immigration arrests used to happen largely unseen at the border or at jails after criminals had been detained and served sentences, now they are taking place on the streets of small towns and cities across America — and not just of hardened criminals but of landscapers, restaurant bussers and farmworkers with no criminal records, Chishti said.

And now, more than anytime in history, citizens are filming it.