Crowd gathered at a protest in front of a large white banner reading 'Abolish I.C.E. Stop the Deportations' on a city street.
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Two Plainclothes ICE Agents Tried to Handcuff a Man at the Las Vegas Airport, Then Walked Away When a Crowd Formed, Leaving One Cuff Dangling from His Wrist

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The man screamed “I don’t know what they’re doing” as one plainclothes agent yanked his hoodie down and the other, masked, backed off into the crowd. He wasn’t arrested that night. He was picked up the next day before his flight left LAX.

Las Vegas police confirmed the two people caught on video trying to handcuff a man at Harry Reid International Airport were ICE agents, and that a records check turned up no outstanding warrants on him. Officers removed the cuff from his wrist and notified ICE.

The Department of Homeland Security identified him as Phu Nguyen, 57, a citizen of Australia. DHS said he entered the U.S. legally on a visa in May 2013 with permission to stay until May 26, 2015, then overstayed.

The agents walked off in Terminal 3 on Monday night after a crowd gathered. DHS said they left “to de-escalate the situation and for officer safety.” Nguyen was arrested Tuesday before his flight left Los Angeles International Airport and is now held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California.

Crowd of demonstrators gathered at an anti-ICE protest in San Francisco, California
Protesters rally in San Francisco on July 14, 2026, voicing opposition to ICE following two fatal shootings by agents within a single week in Texas and Maine. Photo by Benjamin Fanjoy / Getty Images.

“Nguyen refused to depart in violation of our nation’s laws,” the agency said. “He will receive full due process and remain in ICE custody pending the outcome of his removal proceedings.”

Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., said she’s demanding answers. “Plain clothes. No uniforms. No body cameras. No identification. ICE is continuing to act with impunity — instilling fear in our communities and scaring tourists, which hurts our tourism economy,” she wrote on X.

A lone traveler walks through a nearly empty terminal at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas.
Harry Reid International Airport’s terminal sits nearly empty in Las Vegas on August 7, 2025, amid a sharp tourism slump tied to rising travel costs and a Canadian travel boycott. Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images.

Athar Haseebullah, executive director of the ACLU of Nevada, said the agents accosted “a harmless and confused man” and tried to block bystanders from filming before running off. “These are the actions of an agency that is lawless, dangerous, and disgraceful,” he said.

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