Taken by ICE
Reveal
The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX
4.7 • 8K Ratings
🗓️ 6 September 2025
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A young woman clings to a tree as masked men try to peel her off. The men wrench one of the woman’s arms behind her back, then stuff her into the back of an unmarked SUV as bystanders film and shout. She was selling food outside a Home Depot in West Los Angeles when federal agents chased her down and arrested her.
Videos of aggressive immigration raids like this have become commonplace as the Trump administration pursues its goal of deporting millions of people over the next four years.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is arresting people in front of their kids during school dropoffs, on the way to church, and at routine check-ins at immigration offices. Communities are pushing back, leading to clashes with police and protests. These raids are remaking the country.
“Being forced apart like this is tearing through the heart of our home and community,” says Cecelia Lizotte, the sister of a Nigerian man in ICE detention.
This week on Reveal, producers Katie Mingle and Steven Rascón and reporter Julia Lurie tell stories about the people swept up in President Donald Trump’s mass deportations and the families that are left behind.
- Support Reveal’s journalism at Revealnews.org/donatenow
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? |
| 0:04.5 | ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. |
| 0:11.8 | It effectively turned day into night. |
| 0:14.6 | And how it shaped the world now. |
| 0:17.7 | Time travel with us every week on the Thurline podcast from NPR. |
| 0:23.9 | From the Center for Investigative Reporting in PRX, this is Reveal. I'm Al-Letson. |
| 0:30.4 | There have been videos circulating lately that I just can't get out of my mind. |
| 0:34.4 | If you have an idea and a war, of course, you can take her. |
| 0:37.2 | Oh, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. One shows this petite young woman holding onto a tree, gripping it with everything she has, while this older man, a guy with silver gray hair, grabs her arm, twisting it behind her back. Are you kidding the old man? What you're doing is kidnapping. What you're doing is kidnapping. |
| 0:55.0 | The older guy has a mask on. |
| 0:58.0 | He's wearing black sunglasses. |
| 1:00.0 | He's got a gun and a utility belt, but no uniform. |
| 1:04.0 | And he's using everything he has to try and peel the woman off that tree. |
| 1:09.0 | What you're doing is getting? |
| 1:10.0 | What the f***? Get the f*** back. What you're doing is getting to- What the fuck you? |
| 1:11.0 | Get the back. |
| 1:12.5 | Are you kidding me? |
| 1:13.6 | Are you . |
| 1:14.8 | She must understand this is a losing battle for her, |
| 1:17.7 | but she's holding on for dear life. |
| 1:20.6 | The older guy isn't alone. |
| 1:21.9 | There are others. |
... |
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