Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has earned itself quite a controversial reputation over the last six months. Ever since Donald Trump returned to serve his second term, the federal agency under DHS has been conducting raids, arresting, and detaining undocumented people in the US. However, their conduct during the arrest has been drawing massive criticism.
Things have taken another worse turn for ICE as they were caught on camera laughing and celebrating as they arrested two undocumented immigrants in Florida. And that’s not it! The officers also threatened the teenager who recorded the video to delete it or face charges.
Immigration agents told a teenage US citizen: ‘You’ve got no rights.’ He secretly recorded his brutal arrest – Video from Kenny Laynez-Ambrosio, 18, puts fresh scrutiny on harsh tactics used to reach the Trump administration’s ambitious enforcement targetshttps://t.co/VC41m4BzNr pic.twitter.com/iJXt4BTndJ
— George Roussos (@baphometx) July 25, 2025
The incident dates back to May 2 when 18-year-old Kenny Laynez-Ambrosio was heading to his landscaping job in North Palm Beach with two other young men in a vehicle driven by his mother. They were pulled over by the Florida Highway Patrol, and an officer asked everyone in the van to identify themselves while calling for a backup. Kenny said that he was unsure why their vehicle was stopped, as they were driving much below the speed limit.
The video begins with a female officer asking in Spanish if any of them is in the country illegally, as reported by The Guardian. To this, one of Kenny’s friends acknowledges that he is undocumented. The officer then says, “Ok, let’s go.” However, things turn violent and aggressive even before they could exit the van. An officer reportedly “put his hand inside the window,” as Kenny says, “popped the door open, grabbed my friend by the neck and had him in a chokehold.”
In the video recorded by Kenny, the officers are then seen reaching for him. However, he protests by saying, “You can’t grab me like that.” He further tells, “I was born and raised right here.”
However, the officer still pulled him out and pushed him to the ground, aiming a stun gun at him.
On the other hand, multiple officers used force to pull the other man out of the van as they can be heard saying, “put your f-cking head down.”
Condemning the actions of the officers, Kenny clarified that his friend wasn’t even resisting. “My friend didn’t do anything before they grabbed him,” he said.
https://t.co/FUpK2pp9on
“We’re going to end up shooting some of them.”At 9:00 on the morning of May 2, 2025, a Florida Highway Patrol officer pulled over a van with 18-year-old U.S. citizen Kenny Laynez-Ambrosio… pic.twitter.com/0bzYDGRO0Y
— Leroysgame (@Leroysgame1) July 26, 2025
In the video, Kenny can be heard saying, “That’s not how you arrest people. If y’all going to arrest people, y’all have to arrest people regular.” He then tells his friend, in Spanish, “Don’t resist. Don’t resist.”
An officer then uses his stun gun on Kenny’s friend. He falls on the ground and cries in pain. Kenny then tells an officer, “You’re scaring the dude. That’s not how you arrest people.”
The officer casually responds with, “Why?” and then adds, “You’ve got no rights here. You’re a migo, brother.”
The video also captures the audio of unidentified officers making fun of the entire situation. An officer said, “You’re funny, bro,” while bragging about the use of a stun gun as others laughed.
Someone could be heard saying, “They’re starting to resist more now,” to which an officer replies, “We’re going to end up shooting some of them.”
The latter part of the footage also captures their celebration as someone says, “Goddamn! Woo! Nice!” while another mentions a potential bonus. “Just remember, you can smell that [inaudible] $30,000 bonus,” an officer says, as per The Guardian.
Kenny was arrested and detained in a cell at a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) station for six hours. Meanwhile, his two friends were transferred to the Krome detention center in Miami. The portal reports that Kenny was charged with obstruction without violence and sentenced to 10 hours of community service and a four-hour anger management course.
Kenny claims that while in detention, the cops threatened him with charges if he did not delete the video recording from his phone. However, he refused.
Kenny’s lawyer, Jack Scarola, claims that the charges against him were in retaliation for recording the whole incident. “Kenny was charged with filming [and was] alleged to have interfered with the activities of law enforcement. But there was no intended interference – merely the exercise of a right to record what was happening,” he said.
“The federal government has imposed quotas for the arrest of immigrants. Any time law enforcement is compelled to work towards a quota, it poses a significant risk to other rights,” Scarola further said.
“You got no rights here.” 😡 That’s what officers told an American citizen as they shoved him to the ground and tased his coworkers. Kenny Laynez is 18. A landscaper. A son. A citizen. And none of that mattered because of the color of his skin. Florida’s anti-immigrant crackdown… pic.twitter.com/5h2Y9rnUKZ
— Areva Martin, Esq. (@ArevaMartin) July 29, 2025
The footage has led to heavy criticism of ICE and the Trump administration. “This is a story about the corruption of law enforcement by Maga and the brutality of state and federal troopers – formerly public servants – towards nonviolent people,” said Father Frank O’Loughlin, founder and executive director of the Guatemalan-Maya Center.
As the footage goes viral on social media, Kenny hopes that it raises awareness about how immigrants are being treated in the US. “It didn’t need to go down like that. If they knew that my people were undocumented, they could’ve just kindly taken them out of the car and arrested them. It hurt me bad to see my friends like that. Because they’re just good people, trying to earn an honest living,” he said, as per The Guardian.
