An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer is credited with saving a toddler’s life at John F. Kennedy Airport.
The ICE officer, who was at JFK Airport to assist Transportation Security Administration personnel, responded March 25, when a 1-year-old child became unresponsive in the arms of his father and was unable to breathe for almost two minutes, according to a news release from the Department of Homeland Security.
The officer responded after hearing the father hollering for help. The father handed the unresponsive child to the officer, who began performing the Heimlich maneuver, according to DHS.
After a few seconds, the child started breathing again. When EMS personnel arrived, they reassessed the child, who was determined to be healthy enough to fly, DHS said.
Closed-circuit TV footage posted on X by DHS shows a passenger in a TSA Precheck line holding the child with lifeless arms and then the father is seen looking for help, scrambling around the area, and calling for help.
“The ICE agent sprang into action and saved this one-year-old child’s life. If our agent had not been there and stepped up, this would have been a tragic outcome,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement. “Despite the endless smears and lies told about them by sanctuary politicians and the media, our ICE officers show up every day to protect the Homeland and their fellow Americans.”
The agency said it was the second child ICE officers had rescued recently. A 4-year-old boy’s life was saved Feb. 20 after he fell into a hotel pool in Plymouth, Minnesota. Federal officers responded when a woman sought help for the drowning child, according to DHS. After performing CPR for several minutes, the child regained consciousness and was taken to a local medical center, the agency said.
Online comments about the DHS video showing the ICE officer’s response on March 25 varied from celebratory to cynical. “And the Dems claimed ICE was going to start killing people in airports,” posted one commenter. “Probably staged,” posted another.
“It’s possible to respect the rescue and still discuss the agency’s policies separately,” added another commenter.
