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Boston city leaders outraged after ICE agents profile Black man jogging in West Roxbury

BOSTON — Boston city leaders are outraged after learning about a black man who was stopped by ICE agents while jogging on the VFW parkway in West Roxbury Tuesday.

“Incidents like this have no place in our city, have no place for this in our country quite honestly,” said Boston Mayor Marty Walsh during a news conference Wednesday. “It was disturbing video to watch, it was unacceptable in so many ways – it violates someone’s rights just because of the color of their skin and it’s unacceptable.”

Bena Apreala took his cell phone out to record the ending of his conversation with the ICE agents who stopped him while he was jogging near his home. His video has now been shared hundreds of times on Facebook.

ICE confirmed Wednesday afternoon to Boston 25 News that they stopped Apreala because he matched the description of a person they were looking for.

In a statement they say: “ICE officers were conducting surveillance as part of a targeted enforcement action… looking for a previously deported Haitian national with multiple criminal convictions and pending cocaine and fentanyl trafficking charges that may have been residing in the area.”

ICE says the man they stopped was free to go after they determined he wasn’t the right person.

“This incident raises serious constitutional questions and is disturbing on a human level,” said Rahsaan Hall, the racial justice director for the ACLU of Massachusetts.

Hall says the ACLU of Massachusetts is now investigating this incident and will be representing Apreala moving forward.

“To see a black man stopped seemingly for no other reason other than the fact that he was jogging while black is terrifying that it could happen here,” said Matt O’Malley, a Boston city councilor.

Boston city councilors like O’Malley are also looking into what happened.

He says he’d like to change any city policies to further protect people from this type of profiling.

“We need to call out racial profiling, talk about why it’s wrong,” said O’Malley. “I’ve been working with our federal delegation to both get as much information going forward. We need to have crystal clear policies and procedures in place to prevent this from happening again.”