Nearly 675,000 people have been deported from the United States since Donald Trump took office last year, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). As of mid-January, Immigration and Customs Enforcement holds 73,000 individuals in ICE detention each day. 73.6% of those detainees have no criminal convictions, which directly contradicts Trump’s statement that highlighted ICE was only targeting “the worst of the worst” during a White House press briefing. At least 8 people have already died at the hands of ICE officers in 2026, with 32 deaths reported in 2025. Of those 8 people, multiple have had reports of contradictory and questionable accounts. 

42-year-old Luis Gustavo Núñez Cáceres died on January 5th in ICE custody. He had been admitted to HCA Houston Healthcare for a condition related to his heart. There, DHS claimed that he had remained in the intensive care unit until his death and had been receiving proper medical care. That being said, his brother speculated that there was a “lack of adequate medical care while he was in ICE custody.” Multiple investigations by Congress, government agencies, and human rights organizations have reported extremely poor conditions within detention centres.

Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old father of four, died on January 3rd in ICE custody. According to a recent autopsy report, the Cuban immigrant died of homicide. His body showed signs of damaged vessels on his neck, knees, and chest. ICE stated that “Lunas became disruptive while in line for medication and refused to return to his assigned dorm. He was subsequently placed in segregation.” Later, the federal government claimed that he had attempted suicide. However, a witness stated that Campos was put in a chokehold until he lost consciousness. During Campos’ case investigation, the government reversed many of its claims regarding how he died. Due to the lack of accurate information, ICE is likely responsible for his death, among many others.

34-year-old Heber Sánchez Domínguez was reportedly found unresponsive “hanging by the neck” on January 14th. ICE reported that his death is still under investigation and is not providing further information.

ICE, a government-funded organization, is withholding information about deaths and injuries that occur in its custody. They are obligated by federal policy and congressional requirements to report these as transparently as possible. Although, as the group becomes increasingly aggressive under Trump’s authority, more and more lies are being fabricated about the true nature of these fatalities. 

Some falsities entail their identifications. They do not need a warrant to make an arrest; however, they do need to provide a judicial warrant to enter private property. ICE claims they have the authority to do this without a warrant, which is incorrect and illegal. Furthermore, they are legally required to identify themselves. There have been numerous instances where ICE has refused to provide these credentials, including their badges and government names.

Recently, two killings in Minneapolis, Minnesota, have sparked widespread outrage.

Renee Nicole Macklin Good was fatally shot in Minneapolis on January 7th. She was a 37-year-old American with three children who was shot in front of her wife. ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot her through her car window as she was driving away. Federal law enforcement and Trump defended Ross, claiming he had acted in self-defence. Both Trump and other government officials state that Good would have struck Ross with her vehicle. However, eyewitnesses and video evidence clearly contradict these statements. Good was not compelled to stop for the ICE officer and had directed her vehicle away from him. She did not run him over.

“Good was a wife, a mother of three, and a member of her community,” Leah Greenberg (Co-Executive Director of Indivisible) said. “She, and the dozens of other sons, daughters, friends, siblings, parents, and community members who have been killed by ICE, should be alive today. ICE’s violence is not a statistic—it has names, families, and futures attached to it, and we refuse to look away or stay silent.”

Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse for a Veterans Affairs hospital, was repeatedly beaten and shot by ICE officers in Minneapolis. On January 24th, Pretti was filming law enforcement agents with his phone in his hand, which officials claimed was a gun. Video evidence showed that his legally registered gun was under his shirt and out of reach. He had stood between an agent and a woman who had been pushed to the ground, promptly being pepper-sprayed and tackled. Agents shot him at least ten times after his gun had been removed from his person. Several shots had been fired after he was lying motionless and unresponsive. He had posed no threat and was simply exercising his First Amendment rights. 

Ironically, Trump and the DHS—who regularly advocate for the individual right to bear arms—antagonized Pretti for carrying a gun. Many conservative officials who strongly support the Second Amendment, such as Kristi Noem (Secretary of DHS), reversed their stance when questioned about Pretti’s killing. 

“You cannot bring a firearm loaded with multiple magazines to any sort of protest you want,” Kash Patel (FBI Director) said on the “Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo” show. “It’s that simple. You don’t have that right to break the law.”

Patel’s claim has since been repeatedly disproven. There are no such laws in Minnesota that prohibit Pretti from possessing his gun at a public protest. He was within his rights to do so.

 “There is no blanket prohibition or long-standing tradition against bringing otherwise lawfully owned and carried firearms to a protest, parade, demonstration, or other public event,” Clark Neily III (Vice President for legal studies at the Cato Institute) said. “To the contrary, the default practice or tradition is that someone who is lawfully carrying a firearm may bring it to public gatherings, including protests and demonstrations.”

Following both Good’s and Pretti’s deaths, protests have arisen around the nation to bring justice. After Good was shot, at least 1,000 events were planned in an “ICE Out For Good” weekend in cities across the country. An estimated 50,000 people braved subzero temperatures and attended protests in Minneapolis’ “Day of Truth and Freedom” on January 23rd, the day before Pretti was killed. During these protests, officers have made over 70 illegal arrests in Minneapolis. Subsequent to the protest on February 7th, marking a month after Good’s death, 42 people were unlawfully detained. 

Federal agents cannot legally arrest, detain, or use chemical agents against peaceful protesters. U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez issued this preliminary injunction on January 16; however, she denied a crucial request to halt “Operation Metro Surge,” a large-scale operation involving 3,000 ICE and CBP agents. She said that state officials “have provided no metric by which to determine when lawful law enforcement becomes unlawful commandeering.” Despite her claims, it is clear that ICE’s presence disrupts Minneapolis’ sovereignty. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, along with the mayors of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, argue that the operation violates the 10th Amendment. Thousands of agents have operated without coordination with local police, causing the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) to divert resources and spend millions in overtime to respond to federal actions.

Along with wasting the MPD’s money, ICE has spent billions on unnecessary detention centres. Every year, it receives a budget of 28.7 billion. Two-thirds of that is used to detain immigrants, and over 11.25 billion was spent building more detention centres—a 400% increase from last year. The majority of people in these centres are waiting for their immigration court hearings, often for weeks or months. The process takes this long because there are only about 700 immigration judges across 70 immigration courts in the U.S., who are trying to handle a backlog of 3.4 million cases. Instead of using money to hire more judges and clear the pileup, the Trump administration fired nearly 100 immigration judges in 2025, yet approved $45 billion to build more detention centres. Increasing the number of centres will increase the number of people waiting for their trials, leading to a larger backlog and longer wait times.

ICE’s authoritarian rule directly violates multiple amendments in the Constitution. These mass deportations disregard human rights and go against the law, with physical abuse, neglect, and separation of families. Trump is willing to deport hundreds of thousands of people without due process, even at the expense of others’ lives. ICE’s regime causes significant concern, both economically and emotionally. When the government can deny legal rights to one group, the rights of all citizens are ultimately at risk. It is imperative that Congress cut funding for new detention facilities and stop criminalizing immigrants. Administrative status does not negate human rights. No one is illegal on stolen land.