A woman suffered a scary moment early Wednesday morning during her drive through Key Largo when she was stopped by federal agents and briefly detained.
Cellphone video, recorded by Miami Herald reporter David Goodhue, captured the moments federal agents with their faces covered attempt to pull the screaming woman out of her stopped car in front of Pink Plaza at mile marker 103.4.
“I’m a U.S. Citizen,” the woman yelled on video. “Please help me! This is unfair. Why are you doing this?”
The woman continues screaming as agents place handcuffs on her.
Dozens of drivers on their early morning drive witnessed the takedown of the woman. One of them was Goodhue who spoke to 7News about the disturbing detainment.
“I think they’re asking her for her ID. Didn’t appear like she had her ID on her, then after a while things got rough, as you can see,” he said in an interview with 7News.
The video showed a Monroe County Sheriff’s deputy directing traffic as federal agents surrounded the Toyota Corolla.
“It looked like Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and Border Patrol with the local sheriff’s office doing some backup,” said Goodhue.
7News is independently working to obtain more information about the woman, the reason for her detainment, and which agency detained her.
“They pulled her out and cuffed her. She was screaming. At one point, she said she’s a U.S. citizen. Then they put her into one of their SUVs, and then about 10 minutes later, they let her go,” said David.
Ultimately, the woman was let go after sitting in the agent’s patrol car for a few minutes.
According to the Miami Herald, similar enforcement operations have been happening in the area for a few weeks.
“I saw federal agents from several agencies this morning in Key Largo pulling people over from Mile Marker 104 down to the Pink Plaza where this happened,” said David.
He said the arrest he captured on camera was powerful to see.
“I don’t want to, you know, we’re reporters and want to stay objective, but just happened to be there when that happened. I mean, it was pretty powerful to see, especially when in the end, they really didn’t have any reason to detain her.”
7News has reached out to several agencies, including ICE, CBP, the Department of Homeland Security to obtain more information about this arrest. As of Wednesday afternoon, we haven’t heard back.
MCSO said in a statement to 7News that they were part of this traffic stop, but only to keep the peace and traffic flowing. They added the stop was conducted by federal agents.