Did armed and masked ICE agents recently terrorize a U.S. citizen in Scranton?

Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Philadelphia Field Office Public Affairs Officer Jason P. Koontz won’t say.

Koontz won’t say if ICE didn’t swarm and terrify an innocent citizen, either.

Koontz will say the story “sounds made up.”

First reported on the Feb. 20 front page of the University of Scranton student newspaper The Aquinas, Scranton Times-Tribune newspaper columnist Chris Kelly repeated the unconfirmed tale in a Feb. 24 column.

Anyone fabricating an ICE attack account should suffer serious consequences. Publishing newspaper stories about a fake ICE attack would also be irresponsible and only add to the dangerous rumor mill that creates panic among immigrants and others who depend on truth.  Conversely, federal government officials misleading investigators or covering up a real ICE attack might warrant a criminal investigation.

Unfortunately, nobody connected to the Scranton news story but Koontz will address the alleged Scranton ICE brutality reported in The Aquinas that has a naturalized United States citizen and University of Scranton employee living in fear.

Roman Catholic priest and Jesuit University of Scranton President Joseph Marina’s assistant instructed me to contact the media office with my request to talk to Marina about the alleged ICE abuse of an immigrant university employee. Will Marina offer support to that employee and other immigrant workers who might worry they could be the next ICE targets? Will Marina demand an explanation from ICE? Will Marina determine if the story in the university newspaper is true?

Senior Director of University Communications Stan Zygmunt said in a Feb. 26 email that he received my telephone voicemail inquiry and “reached out to the moderator of The Aquinas and the student.”

“Matt Bufano from the University’s News and Media Relations Office will get back to you when we hear back from them. I gave Matt your email,” Zygmunt wrote.

Onetime newspaper reporter Bufano failed to contact me or respond to subsequent emails.

Zygmunt also said in his email, “We also received a note that you contacted the President’s Office. Father Marina is not available.” Zygmunt did not respond to a follow-up email asking why Marina was unavailable.

In a Monday, March 2, call to Marina’s office the woman who answered the phone refused to provide her name or an email address for Marina when I told her the media office was unresponsive, that I have questions and complaints for Marina and that the university’s credibility is at stake,

University of Scranton student newspaper editor-in-chief Samantha Sonnie, who wrote the Aquinas story, also failed to respond to emailed messages about her reporting. And Scranton Times-Tribune columnist Chris Kelly played it cute, refusing to provide a straight answer when I asked in a Feb. 28 Facebook message if he corroborated Sonnie’s story before he wrote his column for Scranton’s only daily newspaper. In a note at the end of his column Kelly saluted Sonnie “for breaking this important story.”

“Did you confirm the recent Scranton ICE incident you and Samantha Sonnie wrote about? Is the incident true? Did the incident happen?” I asked Kelly.

“Working on it,” Kelly wrote.  “Any advice?”

“I’m writing a column for The Scranton City News. You didn’t confirm the story before you wrote your published column?” I responded.

“So, no advice then?” Kelly said.

“I’m writing a column. You didn’t confirm the story before publication?” I asked.

“Thanks, Steve. Have a great day,” Kelly said.

Democratic congressional candidate and Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti did not respond to emails asking if she will contact ICE and ask for a detailed explanation about the allegation, protect Scranton residents and visitors against aggressive ICE actions as described in the recent stories and if she will try to contact the alleged victim.

Scranton Police Chief Thomas Carroll also failed to respond to specific questions about the alleged ICE incident.

The only person officially connected to the chilling account of alleged ICE brutality willing to address this matter is ICE spokesman Koontz.

“This story is extremely vague and sounds made up. There is no way for me to even begin to check if this happened,” Koontz wrote in a Feb. 25 email.

“You know if you have a record or not of a stop in or around Scranton,” I replied. “Help me out here.”

“I would love to help you out, however there is no date, no route, no other information to identify the person or the action,” Koontz said.

Koontz is not wrong in his assessment.

Details about where the alleged ICE blitz allegedly occurred do not appear in Sonnie’s or Kelly’s journalism. Neither Sonnie nor Kelly provide a street name, exact time or date of the alleged “weekday” afternoon incident. Sonnie wrote she did not identify the alleged victim “who spoke about their experience on condition of anonymity.”

Protecting the identity of a confidential source is the norm among good journalists. But journalistic credibility depends on verifying and sharing as many other details as possible. Confirmation lends credence to the veracity of the story. Anything less raises more questions than answers.

Sonnie’s news story and Kelly‘s parroting of her “facts” provide extensive information allegedly provided by the alleged victim who tells a terrifying tale to Sonnie about how “multiple cars surrounded their vehicle as a traffic light turned green.”

The targeted person “believed” agents wearing bulletproof vests emblazoned with the letters ICE who did not identify themselves were kidnappers “like when they traffic women,” Sonnie wrote. Using force, the agents tried to open the front and rear doors, demanding the person get out of the car and threatening to smash the window, Sonnie wrote. Grabbing a gun, an agent said, “Don’t move” when the person reached for a phone to record the assault, Sonnie wrote.

Then the tense drama allegedly took a swift racist turn.

“I hear one in the back say ‘I think we got the wrong person,’ and the other one says ‘They all look the same, we gotta get this one,’” Sonnie wrote, quoting the alleged victim.

ICE agents released the alleged victim when that person provided a “naturalization certificate” showing proof of U.S. citizenship that happened to be in the car, according to The Aquinas account.

In a Feb. 26, 2026, email to Koontz I wrote, “Either this reported ICE incident happened in Scranton, Pennsylvania or didn’t happen in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

“A swift ICE internal investigation is warranted either way.

“If this incident happened as reported, ICE is guilty of reckless and incompetent behavior. If this happened, ICE officials are complicit in possibly illegal behavior that could warrant a federal, state or local criminal investigation.

“If the incident did not happen, Scranton Times-Tribune and University of Scranton media are complicit in spreading false stories that only compound the already false ICE rumor mill in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

“A serious problem exists either way. Did this reported incident happen in Scranton, Pennsylvania? Will ICE investigate the reported allegation?”

Koontz failed to respond to my email.

So whom do we trust to tell the truth?