Queens former police sergeant accused of using a fake ICE identity to threaten a woman and her family with deportation
By Shah J. Choudhury | New York
NEW YORK — A former New York City police sergeant has pleaded guilty in federal court to impersonating an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official and using that false identity to threaten a woman and her family with immigration enforcement.
Atickul Islam, 29, a Queens resident also known as James W. Anderson, admitted Wednesday, September 30, to falsely impersonating a federal officer, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
The case has drawn particular attention in New York’s immigrant communities, where concerns about immigration enforcement can make threats involving ICE especially intimidating.
THREATS SENT BY TEXT
According to federal prosecutors, Islam sent the woman a series of text messages between March 22 and March 29, 2025, in connection with what prosecutors described as a personal dispute.
On March 29, he allegedly threatened to have the woman and her family taken into ICE custody and suggested that he knew where they were.
Hours later, prosecutors said, he contacted her from an unidentified number and falsely claimed to be the director of ICE’s New York Field Office.
The message allegedly ordered the woman and her family to report to an ICE office and warned that failure to appear could lead to additional legal and enforcement action.
FORMER OFFICER LEAVES NYPD
Islam was required to resign from the NYPD as part of his guilty plea. He resigned on September 25, 2026, and agreed not to seek employment with the NYPD or another law enforcement agency in the future.
He faces a maximum sentence of three years in federal prison. A final sentence has not yet been imposed.
Federal prosecutors said the case demonstrates the seriousness of using a law enforcement identity to intimidate or threaten individuals.
For New York’s large immigrant population—including thousands of Bangladeshi-American families—the case is a reminder that immigration-related threats should be verified through official channels rather than accepted at face value.
The case involves allegations against and a guilty plea by one former police officer and does not represent the conduct of NYPD officers, ICE personnel or any immigrant community as a whole.
The case is being prosecuted by the Public Integrity and Human Trafficking and Civil Rights Sections of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York.
