ICE dragged me from my car after I told agents I’m autistic. I thought, ‘I just have to make it through this alive’

1774 points by theindependentonline 8 hours ago on reddit | 110 comments

[OP] theindependentonline | 8 hours ago

Aliya Rahman was driving to see her doctor — the 39th such appointment since she’d suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2024— when the two cars in front of her suddenly came to a stop in the middle of traffic.

Almost immediately, she heard someone loudly blowing a whistle and quickly realized she was in the middle of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation.

The 43-year-old Rahman — who is also autistic and sensitive to loud noises and crowds — next heard a “cacophony of conflicting commands,” beginning with someone barking, “ ‘Move or I will break your f***ing window,’ in my passenger side.

Rahman talked to The Independent via Zoom the past week to enlighten the public about her ICE ordeal and shed light on how a lack of compassion about her condition devolved into a nightmare after being dragged to a reviled detention center, where she was repeatedly mocked over her disability before she blacked out and landed in a hospital.

Even after the Wisconsin native was finally released, without charge, Rahman faced an onslaught of crude comments about her autism. She’s also received death threats and threats of sexual violence. “I've gotten a lot of hate messages,” she said.

WiglyWorm | 6 hours ago

Thing that pisses me off is we're acting like this bullshit is unusual and that it's only ICE.

intronert | 7 hours ago

I believe I have heard the shouting of conflicting commands be described as an actual technique being taught to (some) law enforcement. The Machiavellian idea is that it guarantees that you will be failing to follow at least one set of commands, so they will always be able to charge you with “resulting arrest” at their whim. Worst case, it could be used as a justification for killing you. I find this appalling.

LazyProphet | 7 hours ago

It's kind of the same strategy as flooding the news cycle with nonsense so you can't keep track of what is going on.

BaronVonSchmup | 6 hours ago

Reminds me of the daniel shaver shooting

GloomyAge4865 | 6 hours ago

Yeah, that one was horrifying. There was no way he was making his way out of that alive. An absolute tragedy and miscarriage of justice.

Magjee | 5 hours ago

They were playing a fucked up game of Simon says, till they had enough of an excuse to hide behind and execute him

FailedToRemit | 2 hours ago

Except two people exited the room before him and were able to do it just fine and without incident.

Polkawillneverdie17 | 6 hours ago

Thst video haunts me. It's another perfect example of a cop just torturing an innocent man before executing him.

GloomyAge4865 | 5 hours ago

If you ever REALLY want to be mad, look up the outcomes for the two officers (the man barking instructions and the man who did the actual shooting/execution) involved after all was settled in court.

Polkawillneverdie17 | 4 hours ago

Oh, I did.

ACAB.

sault18 | 5 hours ago

Just remember, the cop who shot Daniel Shaver dead had "You're Fucked" engraved on the rifle he used to end Daniel's life.

eyeap | 5 hours ago

This is what they did to Daniel shaver.

Embarrassed_Cat2697 | 6 hours ago

They learned from Raising Arizona.

tigermelon | 7 hours ago

Not sure if this is a thing, but it comes up a couple times in the article - are ICE referring to people that they detain as "bodies"? Seems very dehumanizing.

There's a 5-10 minute video of her testifying about this (don't have the link, sorry) and she repeatedly says they referred to people as "bodies".

edit: dug it up, here is her testimony on youtube.

tigermelon | 7 hours ago

Gross

tigermelon | 4 hours ago

Thanks, watched. This is absolutely brutal.

NeverEnow | 7 hours ago

Definitely. It's easier to mishandle a "body" than a "person"

Dest123 | 4 hours ago

Pretty much all of the worst things in history have heavily involved dehumanizing language.

question12338338 | 2 hours ago

So when someone asks an ICE agent his body count, he doesn’t have to say zero.

People are referred to as bodies in a lot of contexts. ICE has real issues but this is not one of them.

Tsk201409 | 6 hours ago

ICE uses this term to dehumanize detainees. Makes it easier to go to work when you’re just managing “bodies” and not “people” or “women” or “citizens” or “children”

iamthe0ther0ne | 5 hours ago

From an above link

https://youtu.be/zrcW8SZtYpI?si=oGAan6shULKgJta1

AnthropoidCompatriot | 4 hours ago

Lol, I'm neither disagreeing nor defending ICE, because they're evil and yes this is absolutely dehumanizing language.

But I'm laughing because referring to people as "bodies" has/had been extremely popular among progressives for the last decade.

horseradishstalker | an hour ago

Do you have any specific examples using the exact same set of circumstances? Were the “progressives” whatever that means to you  talking about people in illegal detention centers that have been specifically called out by Amnesty International? because, that is the context here.

Prestigious-Neck-277 | 7 hours ago

that's horrifying. no one should have to go through that, especially with a disability. teh system needs serious change fr

ZWash300 | 5 hours ago

Stephen Miller and company also want to be rid of autistic and disabled people, along with non-whites.

im-ba | 4 hours ago

Can't wait until we're rid of Stephen Miller. Hopefully he'll be in a cold, damp jail cell for the rest of his miserable existence soon

goodfreeman | 4 hours ago

Her testimony should be seen by every American. If you can watch that and not be outraged then we know you are a traitor.

RoostasTowel | 6 hours ago

>She’s also received death threats and threats of sexual violence. “I've gotten a lot of hate messages,” she said

From whom is she receiving these messages?

Dest123 | 4 hours ago

That's one of the craziest things to me about modern times. Discussions used to be like "oh I could see how that agent made a mistake in the heat of the moment, but the person clearly shouldn't have been killed", but now they're all about smearing and demonizing the victims. It's not enough that Alex Pretti was killed, now he has to be mocked and people have to talk about how much he deserved to die. Everything is so fueled by hatred now.

sokratesz | 3 hours ago

For many people it's become a team sport. Their team is in power, and anything that's done by their team has to be good, and must be defended.

Utterly spineless.

TechHeteroBear | an hour ago

Its the cognitive dissonance that they personally think their side is infallible and can do wrong. So therefore if anything they do is their fault 100% it's because the offending part was the one who caused it all.

horseradishstalker | an hour ago

There are people like that all over the world. It’s less about the team and more about a lack of character.

sokratesz | an hour ago

Yup. The very definition of 'npc' that they rage against.

Every accusation, etc.

Epona44 | 4 hours ago

Did they look for Autism on a map?

Mydemonswon | 2 hours ago

??? What does that mean?

onlyfakeproblems | an hour ago

I think the joke is that the Ice agents thought Autistic was a nationality.

Mydemonswon | an hour ago

Ok that's funny. I thought that was the joke but I'm autistic and I miss jokes at times. I appreciate you.

Upper_Cattle3026 | an hour ago

Most people do indeed know how to comply with simple directions so most people don’t have problems with police or federal officers.

Do autistic Redditors understand that or is it too complex? 🤔

FailedToRemit | an hour ago

There is literally a video of her yelling and calling them names and antagonizing them.

And she keeps coming up with every ridiculous excuse about why she drove through their stop and didn’t follow their instructions.

She is an activists, she knew exactly what she was doing.  https://nypost.com/2026/01/14/us-news/woman-dragged-from-car-by-ice-in-minnesota-idd-as-lgbt-and-racial-justice-activist/