New video has been released showing masked immigration officers taking an Oregon father into custody while dropping off his child at a Portland-area preschool last week.
In four clips obtained and verified by Oregon Public Broadcasting, Mahdi Khanbabazadeh, a 38-year-old chiropractor, can be seen asking US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents to “wait for three minutes” because “there is a baby in the car”. Minutes later, after the child exited the vehicle, the video shows Ice officers breaking the driver’s side window of the car.
Three of the video clips were taken by a dashboard camera; in the fourth, taken by a witness, an onlooker can be heard saying, “This is not OK, and no one here will identify themselves to me,” as masked agents handcuff and escort Khanbabazadeh away.
Ice arrested Khanbabazadeh outside Guidepost Montessori school in Beaverton, Oregon, on 15 July. A citizen of Iran, Khanbabazadeh entered the United States on a student visa. Ice said the father had overstayed his visa, but his family told local news that he was married to a US citizen and had already applied and interviewed for a green card.
Immigration agents stopped Khanbabazadeh en route to the daycare, but allowed him to proceed to the school to drop off his child. There, Ice said he “stopped cooperating, resisted arrest and refused to exit his vehicle”. In a statement, the agency added that officers broke a window, and the child was not harmed.
Khanbabazadeh is still being held at a detention center in Tacoma, Washington, according to local news reports.
Oregon Public Broadcasting obtained the four video clips from Khanbabazadeh’s family.
The first video, recorded at 8.17am, shows Khanbabazadeh rolling down his window during a traffic stop.
As Khanbabazadeh searches for his identification, his child says, “Daddy, police!” from a carseat in the back of the car. In response to a question about where they are headed, Khanbabazadeh says, “Daycare.”
In the second video clip, recorded at 8.32am from what appears to be the daycare parking lot, Khanbabazadeh implores officers to wait. “There is a baby in the car,” he says. “Is it hard to wait for three minutes?”
In the third and final dashcam video, recorded at 8.42am, an Ice officer breaks through the driver’s side window of the car. Khanbabazadeh can be heard saying, “I am getting out,” to which a masked Ice agent replies: “Well, you should have done it already.”
In the final video, taken by a bystander, Ice agents handcuff Khanbabazadeh while he is pressed up against his car. Khanbabazadeh can be heard saying, “I’m Iranian, I don’t know why they are doing this. I am a doctor,” while the bystander says, “No one here will identify themselves.”
Randy Kornfield, who was dropping off his four-year-old grandson at the Montessori school during Khanbabazadeh’s arrest, told Oregon Public Broadcasting that one of the school’s teachers asked the officers to identify themselves. He said the agents got into a heated exchange with the teacher at the request.
This was the first confirmed federal immigration arrest at an Oregon school, according to local news. Local and state leaders, including Beaverton’s mayor, Lacey Beaty; the Oregon governor, Tina Kotek; and Congresswoman Andrea Salinas, condemned the arrest.
