A 28-year-old Queens construction worker was headed to work one morning in early November when a man came up to him dressed in a blue vest that said “POLICE” on it.
The Central American man, whose name THE CITY is withholding, said he wanted to help, concerned the officer was investigating a crime in his neighborhood, Corona. The officer showed him a picture and asked if he’d seen the man in it, but when he said he hadn’t, the questions quickly shifted to his own identity and legal status in the United States.
Moments later, the construction worker found himself surrounded by several other officers, who handcuffed him and drove him away. He spent two weeks in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention in New Jersey before a federal judge ordered his release…