Immigration has long been a hot-button issue in American politics. President Donald Trump famously suggested during his first campaign that a wall should be built on the southern border to stop illegal immigration, and ever since, he has made curbing immigration a central theme of his political career. Trump’s second campaign emphasized a plan of mass deportation. After his victory in 2024, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has set out to do just that, using Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to carry out the plan. The effects of this twisted vision of immigration policy have created a brutal, violent environment where the law is secondary to the iron fist of power.
In the first nine months of Trump’s presidency, the DHS and ICE have been committing sickening acts of violence against undocumented immigrants and U.S citizens alike. On Sept. 9, ICE agents raided the business of 79-year-old U.S citizen Rafie Shouhed, claiming that his workers were unauthorized. When Shouhed tried to approach the agents, he was violently slammed into the ground and suffered broken ribs, deep bruising and brain damage. Shouhed was arrested and remained in custody for 12 hours before his family was able to bring him to the hospital.
Shouhed’s detainment speaks to the fact that ICE has rapidly gotten out of control. DHS guidelines prohibit the use of excessive force, and clearly the elderly Shouhed, who has a heart condition, posed little threat to the heavily armed agents.
This case is far from the only one where U.S citizens have faced the wrath of ICE and DHS. Even elected officials have not been spared. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was grabbed by plainclothes ICE agents and arrested after he tried to prevent them from detaining a migrant who had just exited an immigration court.
The federal government, on a wider scale, has been carrying out a shadowy and vicious campaign of detainment and deportation. Tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants have been sent to inhumane detention facilities, including the notorious Alligator Alcatraz, which was specifically built in the Florida Everglades to eliminate the possibility of detainees trying to run away. Almost immediately, the facility faced allegations of horrific conditions and punishments, including having inmates stand outside for hours under the sweltering Floridian sun. At the same time, the Trump administration has deported undocumented immigrants back to countries where they fled persecution. In addition, they have also flown undocumented individuals to countries they have never set foot in and have no ties to. These flights have often been declared illegal by federal judges, but the administration has continued unabated.
The indiscriminate nature of these inhumane actions is deliberate. The government is inflicting pain and suffering on purpose — the more they strike fear into the hearts of immigrants, the more they succeed in their mission of curbing immigration.
The way the government has carried out arrests in general is also abhorrent. Masked agents, often in plainclothes and driving unmarked cars, have been grabbing people off the street. At the same time, the Supreme Court recently ruled that federal officers could detain individuals based on racial profiling — in a recent operation in Chicago, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) commander Gregory Bovino said “how they look” would help determine whether to arrest people or not. This creates a dangerous mix of tactics where people face the threat of being violently taken away just because of their characteristics.
The government has argued that ICE is arresting dangerous criminals and making America safer by getting them off the streets and out of the country. In fact, the ICE website has a “worst of the worst” section that profiles many of the criminals they’ve detained. But the larger data shows that over 70% of people arrested by ICE in the last fiscal year have no criminal records. Furthermore, out of the undocumented immigrants arrested who did have criminal records, only a small percentage had committed a violent crime. Far from focusing on actual criminals, ICE is arresting and deporting undocumented immigrants seemingly at random.
The rights of the Constitution apply to all residents of the country, including undocumented immigrants. They have the right to due process, even as they face deportation proceedings. For U.S citizens, too, the protections of the Constitution should go without saying. Clearly, however, ICE and DHS do not care about the Constitution. Their only loyalty is to Trump’s presidency and policies. And Trump’s aim is to get undocumented immigrants out, no matter how much damage is caused along the way.
The chaotic and dangerous impulses of the Trump administration’s immigration policy are a warning. This is not merely a burden for only undocumented immigrants to bear — it affects everyone living in America. The government has shown that not even being a U.S citizen keeps one safe from state-sponsored violence. If you believe in the rule of law over abuses of power, you must recognize that the tactics of federal agencies are illegal and out of control.