US agents pounced on two immigrants in the hallway of a New York courthouse Friday, wrestling them to the ground in a forceful display of President Donald Trump's crackdown on people without papers.

The two men had just attended a scheduled hearing when plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, some wearing black face masks, grabbed them.

The officers yelled for the men not to move or put up resistance and forced them to lay face-down on the ground as they tied their hands behind their backs and arrested them.

The immigrants were then whisked away into an elevator on the 12th floor of the Jacob K Javits Federal Building in Manhattan.

The routine appointment they hoped would be a step toward life in America ended in shock and detention.

AFP was on hand to witness these

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