'Disgusting': Row over ICE agent accompanying handcuffed detainee into public washroom in viral video; DHS responds

A video showing an immigration agent entering a portable toilet with a handcuffed person has gone viral on social media and drawn an official response from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The video showed an agent and a detainee near a porta-potty in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. In many posts, users suggested the person being led inside was a woman and criticised the officer’s actions, with questions raised over what occurred behind the closed door, like sexual assault.


In response, the DHS said the person in the footage was not a woman but a man who needed to use the restroom. The department said it does not deny people in custody the right to use a toilet. “The illegal alien in this video was a male and had to use restroom,” a DHS spokesperson said. “We don’t deny people the right to use the bathroom.”

The department explained that standard policy in such situations is to never allow a subject alone in an enclosed space because someone under arrest “could barricade themselves in.” This guidance was reiterated by DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin who said the policy is longstanding and applies to all detainees.

Some social media users alleged inappropriate behaviour and questioned why the agent entered the porta-potty with the detainee. Others pointed out that the video’s content is too brief to determine exactly what happened after the door was closed.

The clip comes amid heightened focus on ICE tactics nationally, particularly following other controversial incidents involving federal agents in Minneapolis, where an agent fatally shot a woman last week.

Social media reactions:

• This administration has lied constantly. You have no credibility whatsoever. We don’t believe anything you say. You could say the sun is shining and I’d be heading to the closet to grab my umbrella.
• absolutely not you are lying and you know it that is a straight violation of privacy, man or woman
• But it’s standard protocol to pickup someone working at Target and then when they verify their citizenship you just dump them miles away?