Society
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January 30, 2026
“They laughed at me and told me this wouldn’t have happened if I was a ‘normal’ human being,” Aliya Rahman tells The Nation.
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Aliya Rahman being dragged out of her automobile by ICE brokers on January 13, 2026.
(Mostafa Bassim / Anadolu through Getty Images)
Over the previous two weeks, photos of Aliya Rahman, a US citizen, being dragged out of her automobile by ICE brokers as she screamed “I am disabled” have swept throughout social media. Rahman, a 42-year-old Minneapolis resident, was on her approach to a physician’s appointment on the metropolis’s Traumatic Brain Injury Center on January 15, when masked brokers smashed in a single of her automobile home windows, opened the driving force’s facet door, slashed her seat belt, yanked her out of the automobile, and forcibly took her away. In the seconds earlier than they did so, visuals confirmed the brokers yelling “Move!” at Rahman.
Speaking to The Nation on Tuesday, Rahman recalled the confusion she felt at that second.
“As an autistic person, it was particularly difficult to understand what the officers wanted me to do,” Rahman mentioned. “I personally experience audio sorting challenges as an autistic person. This makes it so that voices near and far are prioritized in the same way, making it difficult for me to figure out who is talking to me. Because of this, I tend to rely on reading lips. You can imagine how difficult it was for me to try to read lips when ICE officers are completely masked.”
In the movies, Rahman will be heard pleading with the officers to let her go, continually reminding them, “I am an autistic disabled person, I am trying to go to the doctor.”
But Rahman emphasised that, her incapacity however, this may not have been a simple second to navigate for anybody. “I think it’s also important to point out that even someone who is not autistic would have trouble handling that situation. It was chaotic and overwhelming. There was a lot going on and it was happening fast.”
The incident occurred simply blocks away from the place, per week earlier, an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Good. “I constantly wondered if I was going to die,” Rahman mentioned.
After the officers handcuffed her, they lifted her from her fingers and her toes and carried her away.
“I do remember facing the ground and feeling pressure on my neck, which, because of my brain injury, was extremely painful for me,” she mentioned.
The viral video ends with Rahman being dragged out and carried away by a number of officers. What transpired after that wasn’t captured on digicam, however Rahman recalled how rapidly issues unraveled.
“After I was violently dragged from my car, I was put in the back of a car with three federal agents, where they laughed at me and told me this wouldn’t have happened if I was a ‘normal’ human being,” Rahman mentioned.
Rahman was then taken to the Whipple Federal Building, the place many individuals are detained after being swept up by ICE brokers. Throughout her detention, Rahman stored reminding the officers that she is autistic and disabled, however nobody appeared to care.
“I was repeatedly denied medical care, disability accommodations, and access to a mobility aid when I asked for my cane. Eventually, I insisted that they look for a wheelchair. When they found one and I was placed in it, I was told that my legs must work if I had been driving,” Rahman recalled. No one requested for her ID or proof of citizenship after she was detained, Rahman mentioned, nor was her face scanned.
Rahman ultimately fell unconscious, and so doesn’t know what occurred subsequent. She is aware of she was moved to the Hennepin County Medical Center and ultimately let go that day.
Rahman is being represented by the MacArthur Justice Center. Her lawyer, Alexa Van Brunt, mentioned that she is “currently gathering evidence in order to pursue legal remedies for the gross violation of Aliya’s rights that day.”
The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown over the past 12 months has led to over two dozen violent or deadly arrests by ICE, as per a report by Documented.
Brunt mentioned ICE brokers “have certainly acted as if they are above the law.”
“In Aliya’s case, they also violated every law enforcement standard and protocol governing use of force and the treatment of people with disabilities,” Brunt mentioned. “Rather than using clear communication, they issued conflicting and confusing commands. Rather than de-escalating the scene, they swore at Aliya and broke her car window. And after finding out Aliya had a disability and traumatic brain injury, they increased their use of violence, slamming her into the ground, carrying her like an animal, and continuously denying her medical care.”
Fatima Khan
Fatima Khan is an award-winning investigative journalist who focuses on politics, hate crimes, and social justice.
