U.S. immigration agents made “demonstrably false” statements to local police during a traffic stop last month, potentially committing a crime in the process, a Utah mayor alleged in an email urging the agency to investigate its own officers.
In a scathing Jan. 28 email to Immigration and Customs Enforcement representative Jason G. Knight, Millcreek Mayor Jeff Silvestrini said federal agents “trampled the rights” of a U.S. citizen two days earlier.
According to the email, obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune through an open records request, the mayor said the agency needs to investigate an altercation, adding that video evidence shows accusations the federal officers made about the man they stopped were “demonstrably false.”
“I request an inquiry into this incident,” Silvestrini wrote in the email, “and, if warranted, consequences for your officers, to perhaps include criminal charges for providing a false report of information to my police officers in violation of [state law].”
Attempts to reach ICE were unsuccessful.
The mayor’s biting correspondence came in response to a viral Facebook post from a man named Brandon Colin, who wrote that he was leaving work near 900 East and Van Winkle Expressway when ICE agents confronted him.
Colin did not respond to requests for comment.
In an interview, Silvestrini said Colin yelled an insult at the agents and honked as he drove by.
Colin’s account of the altercation, coming nearly a week after President Donald Trump was sworn into his second term and issued a flurry of executive orders on immigration, exploded on social media, garnering more than 4,000 shares as of Tuesday.
Facebook post captures widespread attention
When pulled over, Colin wrote, an ICE agent approached with “his gun in my face.”
“He said that I hit his vehicle, then he said I almost sideswiped his vehicle, and lastly he said I tried to kill them,” Colin wrote. “He asked if I was a U.S citizen and if I had any weapons. I said no; everything was happening so fast. He opened my car door and went crazy when he saw my box cutter. He told me to keep my hands on the steering wheel again with the gun aimed in my face.”
Colin requested that ICE call local law enforcement, and agents contacted the Murray Police Department, according to the post. A federal agent then threatened Colin with “another assault charge” when Colin asked if he could spit out some phlegm he had from a lingering cold.
After Murray officers detained Colin for allegedly failing to yield, the post said, officers from Millcreek insisted he be let go. Colin says he received a citation for a traffic violation.
“Millcreek PD (Unified police) apologized to me many times and luckily I was not technically in Murray jurisdiction,” Colin wrote. “Millcreek police saved my life today. If I would have pulled over anywhere else, Murray would have me under arrest letting federal [agents] take me to a detainment center.”
Colin wrote that he streamed the interaction on Facebook, but no video is available.
A spokesperson for Murray police declined to comment on the Facebook post, saying the altercation occurred outside the department’s jurisdiction and that the suburb’s officers were assisting another agency.
In response to a request for records from the altercation — including body camera footage — a Murray police representative said the case was “currently active” and the records were not yet available.
Millcreek mayor scolds ICE
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Millcreek Mayor Jeff Silvestrini on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023.
In his email, Silvestrini wrote that police officers in his city provided ICE with surveillance video that shows a vehicle driving by the federal agents “but no swerving or contact with your officers’ vehicles, contrary to what they reported to Millcreek Unified Police.”
He alleges that two of the three ICE officers at the scene did not sign witness statements and “somewhat backed off their story at the scene.” A third officer did sign a witness statement, Silvestrini wrote, adding that the agent’s account could be a misdemeanor based on the video evidence.
“ICE sapped resources from both my city and Murray,” he wrote, “when they summoned ‘expedited assistance’ for an event which appears to have been nothing more than your officers having ‘thin skin’ in the face of a citizen’s exercise of his right to free speech.”
While disrespect for police is regrettable, the mayor wrote, professional officers are able to let it go.
“Doing otherwise unfortunately leads to more of the same,” he wrote. “Your officers’ conduct appears to reflect either poor training or the kind of unprofessionalism (dare I say thuggery) which gives all police officers a bad reputation.”
Silvestrini urged ICE to address the altercation and keep him informed of any disciplinary actions for the agents involved. ICE’s response to Silvestrini was redacted, but the mayor replied with his thanks and requested he be notified when the agency’s “investigation is completed.”
Since the Facebook post went viral, the mayor said he’s had to repeatedly assure his residents that Millcreek and its police force will protect the civil rights of all Americans.
If ICE expects to work with local officials and law enforcement, he added, the agency needs to ensure its officers communicate with local police and respect the rights of residents.
“I support legitimate efforts of the officers of your agency to locate and deport violent criminals and felons in our country who are without documentation or status,” Silvestrini wrote. “However, I draw the line when such efforts violate the civil rights of American citizens, cause disruption of lawful commerce, or unnecessarily consume resources of my city.”
