Phu Nguyen’s immigration case should follow US legal process, but ICE’s treatment of an Australian citizen at Las Vegas airport demands separate scrutiny.

A video from Harry Reid International Airport shows two plain-clothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers – one visibly masked – force 57-year-old Australian citizen Phu Nguyen to the floor while alarmed travellers ask who they are. Then the officers stand up and leave, one handcuff still attached to Nguyen and the other dangling. This footage is difficult to reconcile with the image the United States projects of professional, accountable law enforcement.

Local police remove the restraint. ICE arrests Nguyen at Los Angeles International Airport the following day. He is now reportedly detained at the Adelanto ICE Processing Centre in California while the United States pursues removal proceedings.

According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Nguyen entered the United States legally on 27 May 2013 and was authorised to remain until 26 May 2015. The agency has not publicly identified his visa or admission category, nor released the underlying immigration records or explained whether he later sought an extension or another status. Its central allegation is that he remained beyond his authorised period of admission.

DHS says the Las Vegas officers disengaged because “anti-ICE agitators” surrounded them and threatened their safety.

Officers sometimes must discontinue an arrest when proceeding would endanger the detainee, the public or themselves. But that principle does not answer what happened inside a........

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