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.
Dr. Norma Bowe standing outside her mobile health clinic near Delaney Hall in New Jersey. Courtesy ACLU-NJ
“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.
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Maya Eaglin
Maya Eaglin is a reporter at MS NOW covering breaking news, politics and current events around the country. She was previously an award-winning national correspondent at NBC News specializing in digital storytelling.
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