Video showing woman pushed to ground during ICE arrest wasn’t filmed at Chicago school

Claim:

A video authentically showed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents violently arresting a mother inside a Chicago school.

Rating:

In October 2025, a video circulated that online posts (archived, archived) said showed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents violently arresting a mother inside a school. At least one post suggested (archived) the video was recorded in Chicago.

The claim circulated as Chicago Public Schools board members reportedly urged the city to consider emergency remote learning to keep students and parents safe from increased ICE enforcement actions.

One Reddit user posted the video with the title, “ICE follow mother into a school and then detained her aggressively with her children.” The video showed agents wearing vests and masks marked “Police” forcefully separating a man from a woman and two children.

ICE follow mother into a school and then detained her aggressively with her children
byu/NewSlinger inCringeTikToks

The video also circulated on Threads (archived) and Instagram (archived). 

The video was authentic, meaning not digitally manipulated or created by artificial intelligence, but miscaptioned, meaning it did not show an arrest in a school or in Chicago. 

The video, originally posted by a correspondent for Timcast, a media network founded by the political commentator Tim Pool, showed federal agents arresting the husband of Monica Moreta-Galarza on Sept. 25, 2025, at the Federal Plaza Immigration Court in New York City. Separate footage of the same incident showed Moreta-Galarza, who could also be seen in the Timcast footage, pleading with agents after her husband’s arrest before one agent pushed her to the ground. 

According to reports at the time, Moreta-Galarza, her husband and her two children came to the court for an immigration hearing on Sept. 25. The family had immigrated to the U.S. from Ecuador. The judge reportedly granted Moreta-Galarza and her husband another immigration hearing in 2026. After the September hearing, ICE agents separated the family and detained Moreta-Galarza’s husband, she told CBS.

After the arrest, Moreta-Galarza pleaded with one agent who repeatedly told her “Adios” before pushing her into a wall and onto the ground, footage of the incident showed.

At the time Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary at the DHS, reportedly said the agent who pushed Moreta-Galarza was “relieved of current duties” and condemned the behavior as “beneath the men and women of ICE.”

Lina Stillman, the lawyer representing Moreta-Galarza and her family, told Snopes via email on Oct. 30, 2025, that ICE released Moreta-Galarza’s husband during the week of Oct. 20, around a month after the arrest. “As far as I know, the family is together,” Stillman said.

Snopes reached out to the DHS and ICE to ask if they still employed the agent seen in the video. We await replies to our queries.

Snopes previously examined claims that a video showed ICE detaining Chicago parents in a school pick-up line.

Sources

“Board Members Urge CPS to Consider ‘Emergency’ Remote Learning amid Continued Immigration Raids.” Chicago Sun-Times, 24 Oct. 2025, https://chicago.suntimes.com/education/2025/10/23/cps-school-board-remote-learning-immigration-ice-deportation-raids.

Guajardo, Adi. ICE Agent Seen on Viral Video Shoving Woman Had No “Compassion,” Victim Says – CBS New York. 28 Sep. 2025, https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/ice-agent-shoves-woman-monica-elizabeth-moreta-galarza/.

“I Filmed the ICE Officer Who Shoved a Woman to the Floor Inside a New York Courthouse.” ProPublica, 26 Sep. 2025, https://www.propublica.org/article/ice-officer-shoves-woman-till-eckert.

ICE Launches Operation Midway Blitz in Honor of Katie Abraham to Target Criminal Illegal Aliens Terrorizing Americans in Sanctuary Illinois | Homeland Security. https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/08/ice-launches-operation-midway-blitz-honor-katie-abraham-target-criminal-illegal. Accessed 28 Oct. 2025.

“In Rare Rebuke, Federal Officials Discipline ICE Officer for Shoving Woman in New York.” AP News, 26 Sep. 2025, https://apnews.com/article/ice-new-york-city-immigration-trump-108b0d30d937f5aa32b81d8d446ea9e4.