A Venezuelan man was dramatically taken down by immigration officers inside a New Hampshire courthouse—right as he was arriving for a hearing on minor charges.
Security camera footage from Nashua Circuit Court captured the chaotic moment on 20 February, when two agents tackled 33-year-old Arnuel Marquez Colmenarez to the ground. The arrest was so forceful that an elderly man nearby, who was walking with a cane, was also knocked over in the process, reported AP News.
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Marquez Colmenarez was due in court that day for charges related to drunk-driving, driving without a licence, and failing to provide information after a crash earlier in the month. But instead of attending his arraignment, he ended up in handcuffs.
Jared Neff, a court liaison officer with Hudson Police, said he heard a loud crash outside the prosecutor’s office, followed by shouting and what sounded like a scuffle. “There were voices yelling ‘Stop!’ and then a loud ‘bang’,” he wrote in his incident report. When he rushed to the scene, he found the suspect resisting arrest and stepped in to help restrain him.
Federal agents reportedly told Neff they had initially tried to detain Marquez Colmenarez quietly in an elevator but claimed he fled, prompting the dramatic takedown.
The arrest came as a surprise to the court itself. Officials say the prosecutor handling the case was never informed about the federal agents’ plans and didn’t witness the arrest. A judge later issued a bench warrant when Marquez Colmenarez failed to appear for his hearing.
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As of this week, he’s being held at an ICE facility in Texas, according to an online database. The agency hasn’t responded to requests for comment.
This incident has stirred fresh concerns about the presence of immigration enforcement at courthouses—a tactic that had already faced backlash during Donald Trump’s first term. Although previously, there were rules discouraging arrests in sensitive spaces like schools, churches, and hospitals, those have since been scrapped in his second term.
Under the current policy, agents can detain undocumented individuals “in or near courthouses” if they believe the person will be there and no local law stops them from doing so.
What was supposed to be a routine court appearance quickly turned into a high-drama moment that’s left people questioning the handling—and the setting—of the arrest.
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