An NYPD sergeant was accused of posing as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field director and ordering a victim and his family to surrender to an ICE office.
During Tuesday’s hearing in the Federal Court for the Eastern District of New York, Atickul Islam, 29, pleaded not guilty to a single count of impersonating a federal officer. The judge released him on a $25,000 unsecured personal recognizance bond.
Defense attorney John Arlia, who represented Islam, told Magistrate Judge Taryn Merkel that the NYPD suspended his client without pay and confiscated his badge and service weapon.
According to court documents, Islam — who also uses the alias “John W. Anderson” — allegedly contacted a person identified as “Victim 1” and introduced himself as an ICE field director. Islam ordered the victim and her family to report to ICE by April 15, according to the records.
The public documents do not detail the exact location of the alleged crime, although one of them indicates that it occurred in Queens.
Merkel also agreed to federal prosecutors’ request to order Islam to stay away from the block where the victim lives.
Islam did not answer questions from journalists as he left the room. According to NYPD records, he is assigned to Police Service Area 3, which patrols public housing complexes in Bushwick.
Arlia stated that Islam is “fully determined to fight these charges.”
The migrant advocacy organization LatinoJustice issued a statement regarding Islam’s arrest.
“Posing as a federal agent to order someone from our immigrant community to report to an ICE office is an egregious abuse of power that destroys public trust and threatens the safety of our community,” said Rex Chen, Supervising Immigrant Rights Attorney at LatinoJustice PRLDEF. “Using fear of immigration as a weapon against a victim is unconscionable. It sends a paralyzing message to our immigrant communities, discouraging victims and witnesses from reaching out for help or reporting crimes, and ultimately making all New Yorkers less safe.”
