Man Arrested for Impersonating ICE Officer in Viral Video

South Carolina Man Arrested for Impersonating ICE Officer

A South Carolina man, Sean Michael-Emmrich Johnson, was arrested for impersonating an ICE officer after a video surfaced of him confronting a Latino man and telling him he was going to be sent back to Mexico. The incident occurred amid aggressive immigration enforcement by the Trump administration.

Johnson was arrested after turning himself in and was released on bond. He faces charges of felony kidnapping, impersonating a law enforcement officer, and other misdemeanors.

The video shows Johnson standing at the driver's-side window of a vehicle with a Latino man in the driver's seat. Johnson asks the man if he is from Mexico and tells him he cannot drive because he has no driver's license. He also makes derogatory remarks about the man's language.

The police department obtained warrants for Johnson after reviewing the video and interviewing witnesses. Deputy Police Chief Monty L. Anders said Johnson does not face hate crime charges because South Carolina lacks hate crime laws.

Roman Palomares, national president of LULAC, commended the police department for filing the maximum charges. "This is an example of the dangerous climate that our community is facing out there," Palomares said.

Pennsylvania Case Involving Impersonation of ICE Officers

In a separate incident, a 22-year-old man, Aidan Steigelmann, was charged with conspiracy of impersonating a public servant in Pennsylvania. Steigelmann and two other men allegedly identified themselves as ICE officers to enter a Temple University residence hall. They were denied access and later identified themselves as ICE agents at an Insomnia Cookies store nearby. Steigelmann was arrested, and the other two men remain unidentified.

Temple University said in a statement that the three men at the cookie store were the same men who were denied access to the residence hall earlier that night. The school said two of the men impersonated law enforcement officers and a third recorded the interaction. A student was taken into custody and placed on interim suspension pending an investigation.

"Neither Temple's Department of Public Safety nor the Philadelphia Police Department have any reports of federal ICE agents being on campus," the school said. "It is deeply troubling and disappointing to know behavior like this reportedly occurred on our campus.