Northern Virginia is the at the center of an ICE-related controversy caught on video.
Carolina Molina, a licensed counselor who works with immigrants, says she pulled into an industrial park off Columbia Pike in Falls Church on Monday to share her business card with law offices located there.
In the parking lot, she saw U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents making an arrest, and shouted at them while she was driving by, reports The Washington Post. She decided not to enter the law offices and turned her car around, and was blocked in by ICE agents. Several agents then surrounded her car on foot and one pointed a gun at her, saying she was following the agents and accusing her of attempting to run them over.
In cellphone video and dashcam video that Molina shared on social media, she shouts at the officers that she has dashcam video that shows she did not try to run them over. She also tells them she is a U.S. citizen.
Warning: Video contains strong language.
My office has been in contact with the woman who recorded this video of an ICE agent drawing a gun on her. She is a Northern Virginia native and a mother.
— Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) August 11, 2026
While I am relieved that she is safe, the habitual dishonesty and dangerous and unjustified escalation seen in this video… https://t.co/s746SUUw8H
If she did not have the cameras recording, Molina said at a press conference on Wednesday, “I think they would have shot me and gotten away with it, to be completely honest.”
She told The Post, “I don’t think I comprehended it in that moment, but looking back on it, it really felt like a Renée Good situation,” referring to the driver who was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis in January.
Reaction to the Video
The Department of Homeland Security claimed in a statement, “On August 10, 2026, while ICE was conducting targeted immigration enforcement in Falls Church, Virginia, an anti-ICE agitator began to drive her car in circles around our ICE officers and then attempted to harm officers by weaponizing her vehicle against them—all in an attempt to help illegal aliens get away.”
U.S. Rep. Don Beyer shared Molina’s video in a post on X Tuesday, writing, “My office has been in contact with the woman who recorded this video of an ICE agent drawing a gun on her. She is a Northern Virginia native and a mother. While I am relieved that she is safe, the habitual dishonesty and dangerous and unjustified escalation seen in this video matches what we have seen from ICE agents across the country. This kind of misconduct and threat of force against members of our communities cannot be tolerated. I will be demanding answers and consequences.”
Screen capture from tinyandstrongthings/Instagram, shared by the office of Rep. Don Beyer
