A U.S. national en route to a medical consultation in Minneapolis found herself forcibly removed from her vehicle and subsequently detained by immigration authorities. The incident, described by the woman in a statement released Thursday, gained widespread attention after footage of the arrest went viral on social media.

Aliya Rahman recounted being taken to a detention facility where she was deprived of necessary medical treatment, leading to her losing consciousness. In contrast, the Department of Homeland Security characterized her as a disruptor who was hindering Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in the vicinity.

This video emerges as part of a growing wave of online media capturing the escalating immigration enforcement in the Midwestern city. Federal agents are making numerous arrests amidst protests, a situation that local leaders have equated to a “federal invasion.”

As she was pulled from her vehicle, Rahman explained that she was simply on her way to a routine check-up at the Traumatic Brain Injury Center when she was confronted by immigration agents at an intersection. The video depicts a chaotic scene, with the shouts of agents competing with the noise of whistles, honking cars, and the cries of demonstrators.

Rahman said that she was on her way to a routine appointment at the Traumatic Brain Injury Center when she encountered federal immigration agents at an intersection. Video appears to show federal immigration agents shouting commands over a cacophony of whistles, car horns and screams from protesters.

In the video, one masked agent smashes Rahman’s passenger side window while others cut her seatbelt and drag her out of the car through the driver’s side door. Numerous guards then carried her by her arms and legs towards an ICE vehicle.

“I’m disabled trying to go to the doctor up there, that’s why I didn’t move,” Rahman said, gesturing down the street as officers pulled her arms behind her back.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security disputed that account in an emailed statement on Thursday, saying that Rahman was an agitator who “ignored multiple commands by an officer to move her vehicle away from the scene.” She was arrested along with six other people the department called agitators, one of whom was accused of jumping on an officer’s back.

The department did not specify if Rahman was charged or respond to questions about her assertion that she was denied medical treatment.

Barrage of viral videos draw scrutiny

The video of Rahman’s arrest is one of many that have garnered millions of views in recent days — and been scrutinized amid conflicting accounts from federal officials and civilian eyewitnesses.

Often, what’s in dispute pertains to what happened just before or just after a given recording. But many contain common themes: Protesters blowing whistles, yelling or honking horns. Immigration officers breaking vehicle windows, using pepper spray on protesters and warning observers not to follow them through public spaces. Immigrants and citizens alike forcibly pulled from cars, stores or homes and detained for hours, days or longer.

In one video, heavily armed immigration agents used a battering ram to break through the front door of Garrison Gibson’s Minneapolis home, where his wife and 9-year-old child also were inside. The video shot inside the home captures a woman’s voice asking, “Where is the warrant?” and, “Can you put the guns down? There is kids in this house.”

Another video shows ICE agents, including Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino, detain two employees at a Target store in Richfield, Minnesota. Both are U.S. citizens who were later released, according to social media posts from family members.

Monica Bicking, 40, was leaving the homeless shelter where she works as a nurse when she took a video that appears to show a federal agent kneeing a man at least five times in the face while several other agents pin him facedown on the pavement in south Minneapolis.

Bicking works full time, so she says she doesn’t intentionally attend organized protests or confrontations with ICE. But she has started to carry a whistle in case she encounters ICE agents on her way to work or while running errands, which she says has become commonplace in recent weeks.

“We’re hypervigilant every time we leave our houses, looking for ICE, trying to protect our neighbors, trying to support our neighbors, who are now just on lockdown,” Bicking said.

‘I thought I was going to die’

Rahman said in her statement that after her detainment, she felt lucky to be alive.

“Masked agents dragged me from my car and bound me like an animal, even after I told them that I was disabled,” Rahman said.

While in custody, Rahman said she repeatedly asked for a doctor, but was instead taken to the detention center.

“It was not until I lost consciousness in my cell that I was finally taken to a hospital,” Rahman said.

Rahman was treated for injuries consistent with assault, according to her counsel, and has been released from the hospital.

She thanked the emergency department staff for their care.

“They gave me hope when I thought I was going to die.”