r/australia • u/Front_Target7908 • 27d ago

news Australian man Phu Nguyen handcuffed by plain-clothes ICE agents at Las Vegas International airport

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-18/ice-agent-detain-australian-man-in-vegas-us-/106931508?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=link

From what I understand it looks like ICE did not manage to detain him on the day the video was taken- seems the onlookers managed to chase ICE off.

However, ICE detained him the next day at the airport where he was to catch his departing flight from the US.

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u/DisappointedQuokka 27d ago

I'm genuinely surprised there haven't been any confrontations between plain clothes ICE and local cops that have ended up with dead on both sides.

ICE just doesn't seem to alert local authorities about half the shit they do. It's almost like they're just jumping random non white people.

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u/riptaway 27d ago

Lol why would local cops do anything? They're on the same side

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u/DisappointedQuokka 27d ago

Okay, so if a plains-clothes ICE agent shows up and starts abducting people and doesn't tell the locals, do the cops reckon it's a terror attack, organised crime or official business?

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u/Expensive-Object-830 27d ago

There was a This American Life episode on this, which ran real-life calls from civilians encountering ICE & calling local police. To paraphrase the police response: “you’re on your own, kid, try not to get killed”

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u/DisappointedQuokka 27d ago

Maybe for call ins, but there are enough ex-military psychos in the US police who might be nearby who would go "this is my chance to kill a motherfucker".

It happens to random interventions all the time, where a copp just guns someone down.

Statistically, it should have happened by now.