A New Jersey nurse who says Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers attacked her outside her mobile health clinic has filed a claim against the federal government alongside the American Civil Liberties Union.

Dr. Norma Bowe says she was running her mobile health clinic outside Delaney Hall — an ICE detention center now infamous for its alleged mistreatment of detainees — when federal agents threw her to the ground as she attempted to render aid to another person over Memorial Day weekend. Bowe confirmed that she was filing a tort claim against the government for $500,000 over her injuries.

Bowe told MS NOW on Friday that seeing bloodshed at the hands of federal agents amid Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown has shaken her spirit.

“I don’t even recognize our country at the moment with all of the violence going on,” she said.

The claim, filed in partnership with the ACLU of New Jersey, is part of a sweeping legal campaign by the organization in response to the Trump administration’s heavy-handed immigration enforcement tactics. The ACLU has filed 54 claims like Bowe’s across the country. 

Delaney Hall is an ICE immigration detention facility at the center of national and local protests, where elected officials and activists have reported poor living conditions, inedible food and delayed medical care.

Bowe said she decided to bring a mobile clinic to Delaney Hall in support of families visiting their loved ones after hearing one of her students’ experiences with ICE. 

“One of my students was about to graduate, a really amazing student, and she called me in a panic because her husband had just been picked up by ICE on his way to work, and you know he’s never had so much as a parking ticket. She’s an American citizen. His paperwork was in progress. It was a bit shocking that he ended up in Delaney Hall,” she told MS NOW. 

Bowe said her team performs screenings for diabetes, cancer and mental health, while also providing basic first aid to those near the facility.

“It’s a very distressing place, especially if you’re trying to visit someone. And so a lot of times, people will come to us for basic health screening or a band-aid, and we’re there also to listen. So I’ve been going, you know, twice a month for this entire year.” 

But everything took a turn on May 25, 2026, when Bowe said she went to help a woman who was on the ground. 

Video of the interaction circulated on social media and was verified by Bowe and her legal team. 

“I see these ICE agents who had just shown up, pushing people back with batons and dragging people on the ground, and I saw a young woman getting dragged on the ground with her arms up over her head, and they ripped her entire shirt off. So she was laying on the ground in her bra and yelling, ‘Help me! Help me!’ And I have daughters, you know. I have a granddaughter. I have students who are women, and this just really disturbed me,” Bowe said.

As she moved toward the woman to help, Bowe said she herself was knocked to the ground by ICE agents. 

“An ICE agent grabbed me by the back of my shirt. Another ICE agent was next to that one, and they both kind of threw me through the air. And my head slammed the sidewalk on my left side. My left eye orbit was completely abraded and bruised. I had injuries to my knee. My shoulder hurt,” she said. “As I was going down, I thought about Alex Pretti, who was also a nurse, who was also trying to help someone up.”

She described the scene as completely chaotic, and said that it appeared everyone who was there was at risk of being targeted by agents. 

“I was clearly a medical person. I was not a protester. I was not in the protest area. I was off to the side until they ripped that girl’s shirt off,” she said. 

When reached for comment, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson sent MS NOW a statement defending officers and decrying the ACLU.

“Officers are highly trained in de-escalation tactics and regularly receive ongoing use of force training,” the statement read in part. “When will the ACLU acknowledge the chaos and cruelty of anti-ICE agitators, criminal illegal aliens, and recognize the victims of illegal alien crime?”

Despite her injuries, Bowe said she still routinely serves at Delaney Hall. 

“​​I am not one to scare easily. I really feel very dedicated to serving the families,” she told MS NOW. 

She called on more civilians to activate and help their local communities in the face of Trump’s crackdown.

“Anyone can be an upstander. You do not need to be a bystander. You can use your phone. You can use your camera. You can document. You can write everything down. You can talk to your elected officials,” she said. “We have an election coming. Go vote. The only thing we have left now is mutual aid. We have to help each other, and we have to be courageous about it.”

The post ‘I thought of Alex Pretti’: Nurse files federal claim alleging ICE agents attacked her appeared first on MS NOW.

From MS Now.