Police in South Carolina received a call reporting that a person was driving a vehicle without a license. It was actually the caller who had committed a crime, the Sullivan’s Island Police Department said. A video that Spanish news network Nuestro Estado shared on Facebook showed a man telling the driver of a stopped truck that the driver was “going back to Mexico.” Police obtained warrants for Sean Michael Johnson, 33, of Huger, S.C., who is among a handful of people who have been arrested for impersonating law enforcement officers while citing immigration laws since President Trump directed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to arrest more than 1,000 immigrants per day, reports the Washington Post. The order has put immigrant communities on high alert; some people have even worried that ice cream trucks and Secret Service agents have been working for ICE.
Men in Philadelphia and North Carolina have also been arrested for the impersonation of ICE officers. On Saturday in Philadelphia, Temple University’s public safety team responded to reports of people impersonating ICE agents at a campus residence hall, said Philadelphia police spokeswoman Tanya Little. The men wore black shirts that said “Police” on the front and “ICE” on the back. Three men were reported to be impersonating ICE and police officers at a nearby Insomnia Cookies, Little said. While two suspects left in an SUV, another suspect, 22-year-old student Aidan Steigelmann, was arrested. Temple said that it suspended Steigelmann and that others who impersonate law enforcement agents could be expelled. “This behavior and harassment of Temple community members will not be tolerated,” the university said. In North Carolina, a 37-year-old man was arrested Jan. 26 and charged impersonating law enforcement, kidnapping, second-degree forcible rape and assault on a female. He carried a fake business card with an image of a badge and threatened to deport a woman at a motel if she didn’t have sex with him, reported WBTV in Charlotte.