Sunday Read: How this citizen stopped ICE from arrested 2 immigrants

The immigration rights activist who shut down an attempted arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents says video of the incident shows how much of a role "knowing your rights" can play in determining how an encounter with ICE ends.

ICE agents have been carrying out Donald Trump's anti-immigrant and deportation policies with zeal usually striking fear in immigrants bringing their children to school, attending a hearing at courthouses or going to work. In one instance in New York, they picked on the wrong man.

Bryan MacCormack, 30, executive director of the Columbia County Sanctuary Movement in New York, told Newsweek he had been driving with two undocumented immigrants, whom he had accompanied to a courthouse to deal with minor traffic citations, when his vehicle was pulled over by ICE agents.

When approached by the agents, he told one of the immigrants to videotape the interaction.

In a video of the incident, which took place on March 5 in Hudson, New York, MacCormack, can be seen calling the ICE agent's attempt to frighten him into cooperation. 

When one of the ICE agents, presented what he called a "warrant of arrest."

Because he is involved in the sanctuary movement, McCormack knew his rights and called the agent's bluff. He pointed out the agent's warrant of arrest presented was an administrative warrant from the immigration agency, which does not require compliance, as opposed to a judicial warrant signed by a judge, which does.

In the video, MacCormack can be seen telling the ICE agent that the warrant of arrest he has is "not signed by a judge. It's not a judicial warrant. I have no obligation to oblige by that warrant." 



In a statement, the Columbia County Sanctuary Movement asserted that the officers "implicitly threatened" MacCormack "by asking if he knew section 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act pertaining to the harboring, transporting and smuggling of non-citizens."

In the video, the ICE agent speaking to the rights advocate eventually walks away, and MacCormack said he and the community members in his vehicle were able to safely exit the situation.

ICE spokesperson Khaalid Walls said in a statement to Newsweek that its agents had "specifically sought two unlawfully present foreign nationals" in the March 5 incident, but said "an individual [MacCormack] interfered with the enforcement action, causing officers to instead depart the scene to avoid further disruption."

Walls said ICE believes that "individuals who intervene in or seek to impede ICE officers while they are carrying out their mission recklessly endanger not only the enforcement personnel, but also the individuals targeted for arrest and potentially innocent bystanders."

"Those who engage in such actions expose themselves to potential criminal violations, and run the risk of harming the very people they purport to support," Walls said, adding: "Despite these attempts to obstruct ICE’s lawful efforts to apprehend criminal aliens and immigration violators, the agency remains committed to its efforts to uphold public safety."

MacCormack told Newsweek that he believes what the incident really shows is how undocumented immigrants knowing their rights can make "the difference between a community member being detained or deported or going home to their family. That's how serious knowing your rights is."

"It really is a Fourth Amendment issue," he said. "We all need to be upholding the Fourth Amendment and the Constitution to protect our rights and the rights of our community members."

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