Latrance Battle, Florida woman pretending to be an ICE agent tries to kidnap ex boyfriend’s new wife, who was in the process of becoming a U.S resident, before the victim escaping. Incident is the latest incident since the return of Trump with individuals emboldened by his controversial immigration and deportation policy targeting vulnerable individuals seeking to secure their legal residence or fearing deportation.
A Florida woman is facing felony charges after pretending to be a U.S. immigration (ICE) officer in a bid to kidnap a woman who is married to her ex-boyfriend.
Latrance Tracy Battle, 52, of Panama City, dressed in a fake ICE shirt and holding a sheriff’s business card, on April 10, entered a hotel chain where the woman — whose identity was not released — worked, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by the Miami Herald. Battle approached the woman and claimed that she was there to detain her, according to a Facebook release by the Bay County Sheriff’s Office.
Fake ICE agent wanted woman to suffer consequences of her new husband’s actions
Authorities claimed she wore ‘a black shirt with ICE printed on the front’ and showed the woman a business card from the sheriff’s office as proof of her affiliation with the government agency. The statement noted that Battle also allegedly carried a ‘hand-held radio.’
The woman — who ‘is in the process of becoming a legal United States resident,’ believed that Battle was a legitimate agent and ‘went willingly’ with her.
It was while the un-identified woman was in the car with Battle, that things took a twist as the woman sought to call her husband and lawyer only for Battle to ‘snatch’ the phone away from her.
Battle told the woman that they were going to the sheriff’s office. The ‘trapped’ woman claimed that she realized that she was being kidnapped when Battle instead took her to Bridge Plaza Apartments. At some point, Battle allegedly told the woman that now she had to ‘suffer the consequences of her husband’s actions.’
With the help of a neighbor, the woman managed to escape and alert police and her husband, the Miami Herald reported.
Battle was arrested by police on Friday, April 11. The wanted woman was allegedly attempted to flee to Alabama when she was detained.
Immigration policy and fear of deportation emboldening criminal behavior
A video of the arrest was shared by the Bay County Sheriff’s Office. In it, officers approach Battle’s car and repeatedly ask her to open the door. After multiple attempts, they open it, with video showing Battle getting out of the vehicle with her hands up.
Battle faces multiple charges: kidnapping in commission of a felony, robbery by sudden snatching, impersonating LEO in commission of a felony and felony violation of probation.
The episode follows a similar episode when a Florida man dressed up as an ICE agent and went to an Orlando apartment complex known to house Mexican non residents where he attempted to terrorise residents to come with him for deportation.
The above incidents come in the wake of the Trump administration’s controversial and some would argue ‘overtly’ aggressive stance to immigration and legal residence in the United States, seemingly emboldening racists, capricious behavior and preying on the fears and concerns of those who are seeking to ratify their residential status, including an 11 year old girl who was threatened with deportation by her classmates who went on to take her own life along with a Van Nuys mother in California, who last month drowned her 7 year old daughter following fears over the status of her own legal alien status.
