The FBI arrested a man caught on video saying he would kill an ICE officer’s “whole f*cking family” during a riot outside a detention facility in New Jersey.
The Justice Department identified 27-year-old Nicholas Matthew Scelfo on Monday as the man seen in a video taken on May 27 by independent journalist Nick Sortor. In the video, Scelfo threatend violence against an ICE officer protecting the Delaney Hall detention facility in Newark. Scelfo, of Brooklyn, New York, was charged with influencing, impeding, and retaliating against a federal officer by threat.
In Sortor’s video, a man wearing clear goggles identified as Scelfo tells an ICE agent, “I’ll kill your whole f*cking family! Your whole f*cking family is dead! Your children, your wife, all dead! I have your face, motherf*cker! You’re dead! Dead!”
🚨 This is EXACTLY WHY ICE agents are FORCED to wear masks
ICE Newark rioter: “I HAVE YOUR FACE, MOTHERF***ER”
“Your WHOLE F***ING FAMILY is DEAD!”
“Your KIDS. Your WIFE. ALL DEAD!”
This is the type of TERRORISM Democrats WANT ICE agents to face by de-masking them pic.twitter.com/d36Iv8JpAj
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) May 28, 2026
That came after Scelfo and an ICE deportation officer got into a “physical confrontation” involving the officer hitting him twice in the leg with a baton, according to the criminal complaint.
The FBI said that it tracked down Scelfo based on witness interviews, records, video footage, and physical evidence. FBI Director Kash Patel said that facial recognition technology was used to identify Scelfo.
After being arrested and interviewed by the FBI, Scelfo “admitted that he had been at the demonstration, had in fact made statements toward an officer including a threat to kill him and his family, and had later seen himself in a video that was in the media depicting him at that demonstration making statements toward law enforcement” according to the complaint.
A lawyer for Scelfo is not listed in court documents. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.
“Federal law enforcement officers face danger with great courage, and they should be able to do their jobs without being threatened and fearing for their families’ lives,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “We take such threats very seriously and will prosecute those who make them to the fullest extent of the law.”
Dozens of agitators have been arrested outside Delaney Hall as leftist activists and Democrat politicians claim that the illegal immigrants detained there face poor conditions. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka is expected to file a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to shut down the facility.
Federal officials and Republicans have pushed back on those claims.
Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) toured the facility on Monday and said he found it “clean, organized, and well-run.”
“Clean dorms. On-site doctors, nurses, and dentists. A law library. A regular library. A gym. A soccer field. Meals for allergies, kosher requirements, religious needs, and medical restrictions,” he said. “So let’s stop pretending this is about conditions.”
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