Plainclothes ICE agents leave man handcuffed at Las Vegas airport
Police said the man had no outstanding warrants after a viral Terminal 3 encounter; DHS said he was later arrested at LAX over an alleged visa overstay.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
3 min read
Two plainclothes ICE agents tried to handcuff a man at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas on Monday night, then walked away as a crowd gathered, leaving him with a cuff still attached to one arm, according to police and video posted on social media.
The encounter happened in Terminal 3. The video shows the man on the floor with one hand behind his back while two agents stand over him. As the person recording asks what is happening, a male agent pulls a hoodie down over his head.
“I don’t know what they’re doing,” the man screams in the footage.
Las Vegas police confirmed that the two people seen trying to restrain him were Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Police said officers checked the man’s records and found no outstanding warrants.
“They removed the handcuff from his wrist and notified ICE,” Las Vegas police said in a statement.
DHS says man overstayed visa
The Department of Homeland Security identified the man as Phu Nguyen, 57, and said he is an Australian citizen who overstayed his visa.
A DHS spokesperson said the two agents left without arresting Nguyen “to de-escalate the situation and for officer safety” after a crowd formed.
DHS said Nguyen was later arrested Tuesday before his flight departed Los Angeles International Airport. Online records show he is being held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California.
It is not clear whether Nguyen has an attorney.
According to DHS, Nguyen entered the United States legally in May 2013 and had permission to stay until May 26, 2015. The agency said he “refused to depart” and will remain in ICE custody while his removal proceedings continue.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement referred questions to the same DHS statement.
Senator demands answers
Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., criticized the agents’ conduct and said she was seeking more information about the airport encounter.
“Plain clothes. No uniforms. No body cameras. No identification. ICE is continuing to act with impunity — instilling fear in our communities and scaring tourists, which hurts our tourism economy,” Rosen wrote Thursday in a post on X.
DHS did not immediately respond to questions from NBC News about why the agents were in plainclothes or whether they identified themselves as law enforcement before the attempted arrest.
Rosen added that ICE “must follow the same commonsense guardrails as other law enforcement agencies.”
Athar Haseebullah, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, also condemned the episode. In a statement, he said the footage showed ICE officers covering their heads and faces, approaching a “harmless and confused man,” trying to stop bystanders from filming and then leaving the scene.
Haseebullah called the agency’s conduct “lawless, dangerous, and disgraceful.”
This story draws on original reporting from NBC News.