ICE Is Everywhere and Acting with Impunity

The Department of Homeland Security (D.H.S.) has been involved in a series of deadly incidents, with numerous people shot and killed by agents. Since the beginning of Donald Trump's administration, agents have shot at some two dozen individuals in the United States, resulting in the death of six people. The killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti during Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota was a turning point in public awareness of the problem, but it was not the first incident.

Ten months prior, in South Padre Island, Texas, a twenty-three-year-old U.S. citizen named Ruben Ray Martinez was shot and killed by an ICE officer, a fact that the government did not disclose for nearly a year.

In a span of one week in July, ICE agents killed two more individuals: Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who had lived in the country for thirty-five years and raised a family, and Colombian Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, who had a wife and toddler. These incidents were classified as officer shootings. However, the D.H.S. has a history of not charging ICE officers in these deaths and often blames the victims, labeling them as "assaulting" officers or "weaponizing" their vehicles, despite video evidence contradicting these claims or officers not wearing their body cameras.

The administration has also filed assault charges against over five hundred and fifty people, with about half of the roughly four hundred cases resolved resulting in acquittals, dropped charges, or prosecutors withdrawing them. Due to the federal government's reluctance and active obstruction of independent investigations into its agents, states have attempted to bring their own cases.

For example, prosecutors in Minnesota sought the extradition of Christian Castro, an ICE agent held in Texas, who was wanted for shooting a Venezuelan national during Operation Metro Surge. When Texas refused to extradite Castro, he was released, and the Justice Department charged him with a lesser offense.

ICE arrests have reached a record high, with nearly fifty-one thousand incidents in August alone. The department plans to hire five thousand more ICE officers by the end of the year, having recently signed seven billion dollars in construction contracts for more detention centers. In a concerning development, ICE has stopped listing in its online detainee locator the whereabouts of people with final deportation orders, making it difficult for family members and lawyers to locate them.

Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of ICE, has taken the lead in prosecuting Trump's principal obsession: searching for evidence of noncitizen voting in the upcoming midterms. Since last year, the department has pursued over sixteen hundred voter-fraud cases, with only a hundred and sixty arrests. Despite this, the administration has attempted to coerce states into providing their voter rolls, threatening to withhold funding if they do not comply.

The White House used part of the D.H.S. budget to make celebratory ads for the President, with a disclosure that they are "Paid for by the Department of Homeland Security."