Purple Heart Recipient Held by ICE for 8 Hours Says He Wasn’t Allowed to Call a Lawyer

Screenshot via ABC News

In a report published on Friday, William Vermie, an Army veteran and Purple Heart recipient who was held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis for eight hours, told ABC News that he wasn’t allowed to speak with a lawyer at any point throughout his detention.

The 39-year-old Vermie, who was injured in combat in Iraq during a 2006-2007 deployment, was “tackled and arrested” by ICE agents on Jan. 13, while “standing with a crowd on a public sidewalk observing ICE agents detaining two young men in his neighborhood.”

Per a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) statement to ABC News, Vermie was arrested for allegedly assaulting a law enforcement officer.

“An agent approached me and told me to move back and attempted to push me and I didn’t let him,” Vernie told ABC News. “And then him and about three or four other agents started grabbing my limbs and wrestled me down to the ground.”

After his arrest, he was transported to the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis and held in a cell.

“They read me my rights and asked me if I wanted to answer any questions without a lawyer, and I said no,” he said. “And then they said, ‘You’ll have an opportunity to contact one later.'”

Instead, Varnie was never allowed a phone call to an attorney or any family members, even though a lawyer procured by his wife, who spoke with ABC News, “had been attempting to speak with him.”

“We’re entitled to counsel. It’s part of the Bill of Rights. Even if you are here illegally and you are a foreign national, you are entitled to legal representation,” Vermie said. “I don’t know whether they’re incompetent or if they chose to do this, but it’s not good.”

“My client was snatched off the streets by masked ICE agents in retaliation for peacefully protesting,” Vermie’s attorney added in a statement to ABC News.

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