A new video appears to show ICE agents detain a man in a Walmart parking lot, and then steal his groceries on Christmas Eve.
The video, originally posted to TikTok by the anti-ICE organization People Over Papers on Christmas Day went viral across platforms. The account @LongTimeHistory shared the clip on X, where it received over 1.5 million views.
The incident took place at a Walmart parking lot in Yakima, Washington, about two hours away from Seattle. In the video, ICE agents appear to arrest and detain a man. The woman recording the video asks the man repeatedly for his name and phone number so she can let his family know what’s happened. He identifies himself as Emilio Moreno before he’s put in an unmarked ICE vehicle.
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The woman then asks one of the ICE agents for the man’s number. He refuses the request, telling her Moreno will be allowed to call his family from the facility.
“No, you don’t. You didn’t let my husband call. He’s in f*ckin’ Mexico right now,” she replies.
The agent then accuses her husband of fighting back—which she says he wasn’t. She asks the agent if he was the one who arrested her husband, and he confirms he is. While this conversation is going on, other ICE agents can be seen removing things from Moreno’s shopping cart; though it is unclear where the agents are placing the purchased food, @LongTimeHistory alleges they took the groceries for themselves.
The video was shot by volunteers documenting ICE activity in parking lots for Walmart and WinCo stores, according to the Yakima Herald. One of the activists, Ezequiel Morfin Jr., a board member of the activist organization Latino Votes, said that he was nearly run over in the Walmart parking lot.
“Our main goal today was that someone does not have to get picked up and separated from their families on Christmas Eve,” Morfin told the Herald.
“Are these guys Christians? Do they believe in God, or are they Christian Nationalists?” Morfin added. “Couldn’t they just pause for a day or two?”