ICE agents threatened two members of the Colectiva Feminista en Construcción on Saturday afternoon in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico, pointing pepper spray and a taser at their faces, according to Shariana Ferrer Núñez, co-founder and spokesperson of the activist group. Ferrer Núñez said she and a colleague went to Arzuaga street to document the scene after an unspecified ICE operation there, having learned of it through community messages while taking part in a climate change activity with a youth group called 'Hormigas bravas’.
By the time they arrived, agents appeared to have finished and taken people away, though she said the group does not know who or how many. As they began documenting vehicle models and license plates, an agent pointed an industrial canister of pepper spray at her face without any verbal exchange, and another pointed a taser at her colleague’s face, Ferrer Núñez said.
A short video posted on the group’s social media shows an agent pointing the pepper spray at the person filming and telling her in English, 'You’re not going to like this.' She also said agents threw to the ground the electric scooters the activists had arrived on. Ferrer Núñez noted that filming police and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in public areas is protected by the First Amendment and the Right to Record Act, and denounced the operations’ impact on the migrant community.
El Nuevo Día said ICE’s press office had not responded to requests for comment at publication.