After noticing “disturbing” allegations against Cincinnati ICE agents, the Ohio Immigrant Alliance began its investigation. “What we found deeply alarmed us,” the group said
The racist and violent history of the ICE agent that took the life of Maine dad Johan Sebastián is disturbing – and “not unusual,” according to a devastating report from an Ohio-based immigrant rights advocacy organization that examined the criminal background of nearly 60 mass deportation officers going back two decades to the present day.
“After noticing a disturbing trend of Cincinnati ICE agents committing sexual or violent offenses against women, the Ohio Immigrant Alliance began looking deeper into the criminal backgrounds of other agents. What we found deeply alarmed us,” the organization said in the report. It found that of the 59 agents identified by Ohio Immigrant Alliance, 85% percent had been charged with or convicted of sex offenses, with nearly two-thirds targeting children.
“Of the 59 individuals, 50 (84.7%) have been charged with or convicted of sex offenses, and 37 (62.7%) committed crimes targeting children. Taken together, 35 individuals (59.3%) committed sex offenses against children — the single largest category on the list,” the report said. Mass deportation agents employed by both Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) commonly abused their authority in order “to commit, conceal, or contribute to their crimes,” the report continued.
‘THE MAN HUNTING PREDATORS WAS ONE HIMSELF’
Beginning in late 2024, “Ramon Marquez, a CBP agent in Arizona, exploited his role overseeing the Border Patrol Explorer Program — a youth activity — to sexually abuse a minor participant. Investigators found that incidents occurred at his home, Explorer activities, out-of-town trips, and even Border Patrol facilities. He had also inappropriately texted another child in the program.”
The abuses stretch back years. In 2005, ICE official Frank Figueroa “was caught on video exposing himself to a 16-year-old girl at a mall food court,” the report continued. “The bitter irony: Figueroa was formerly in charge of Operation Predator, the ICE program that deported individuals convicted of sex crimes. The man hunting predators was one himself.” Figueroa was ultimately slapped on the wrist and allowed to retire with his full pension.
VIOLENT BEHAVIOR SHOULD BE A DEALBREAKER
While the administration has been haphazardly recruiting an army of unqualified agents to carry out its mass deportation obsessions – the reported agent who killed Johan Sebastián was hired just last year – the report reveals that it’s not only a matter of unvetted hires, but also a toxic work culture where predatory, violent behavior is apparently not a dealbreaker. Many of the agents detailed in the report “remained employed for decades at ICE or the Border Patrol despite red flags.”
“Dana Ray Thornhill was first arrested for sexual assault of a child at the age of 13 and served time in the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections.” But that history did not preclude him from being hired by the federal government. “Despite this, he was hired by the Border Patrol and worked there for nearly 20 years before being caught again for child molestation and sexual exploitation of minors.”
‘NO WAY’ THAT ICE DIDN’T KNOW IT HAD A SERIAL ABUSER IN ITS RANKS
In another notable case that has been in the headlines throughout the past months, local police were called to the home of 20-year ICE veteran Samuel Saxon nearly two dozen times due to domestic violence incidents in the 18 months prior to his 2025 arrest and indictments, the report said.
Throughout that time, he had strangled his partner “several times and broken her nose and her pelvis, an injury that required surgery.” During the final time that police were called to the couple’s home, the arriving officers “saw bruises on the woman’s chest that are consistent with being forcibly grabbed by the chest and neck,” WCPO reported last year. They were called when a neighbor witnessed Saxon grabbing a woman by her neck and dragging her into an apartment.
There’s simply “no way” that ICE leadership didn’t know it had a serial abuser in its ranks, said Ohio Immigrant Alliance Executive Director Lynn Tramonte.
“His victim had broken bones that required surgery,” Tramonte said. “The police came to his home 23 times in less than a year and a half. He had a DUI. One of his bosses even called the police to do a welfare check when he didn’t show up for work, and they found him holding a knife. His supervisor admitted he was a ‘loose cannon.’ This went on for years, ICE knew about it, and they kept promoting Saxon instead of firing him. That’s not how a law enforcement agency should operate.”
In April, Saxon also pleaded guilty to lying to the DHS watchdog in relation to the domestic abuse charges. That should come at no shock, considering how often agents have lied and said that victims like Renee Good and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo weaponized their cars against them, only to have those claims totally fall apart.
IT’S NOT JUST ICE
And while ICE frequently occupies the news headlines due to its horrific public displays of bloody violence within our communities, CBP accounts for nearly three-quarters of all cases in the report. “Both agencies show high rates of sex offenses (CBP: 86%, ICE: 81%), but ICE cases are more likely to involve underage victims — 69% of ICE cases involve children, compared to 62% for CBP.”
Previous research from the Southern Border Communities Coalition has found what it calls a “culture of abuse” at CBP. “In 2019, researchers estimated that CBP officers are 5 times more likely to be arrested than local and state law enforcement personnel,” Southern Border Communities Coalition noted. “CBP personel have been arrested for corruption, sexual assault, aggravated assault, domestic violence, and sex crimes against children.”
CONTINUED DEATHS HIGHLIGHT URGENT NEED FOR ACCOUNTABILITY
These reports should remain top of mind as outraged Americans continue to demand justice and accountability following four immigration-related deaths in the span of just one week this month. One of the four victims, Jesús Manuel Arenas-Silva, died on the same day as Johan Sebastián after suffering a fatal cardiac event while being transferred between camps in Georgia.
This deadly crisis of people dying under our immigration system is systemic. Just this week, a court-appointed doctor issued a searing review of “nightmarish” medical failures at a detention facility in California.
“The exponential growth of deaths in so-called ‘civil’ immigration jail, and the opening up of a new killing field — the deaths of civilians on U.S. streets — is directly related to the factors we outline in our report,” Tramonte continued in a statement received by America’s Voice. “ICE and border agents should never be given guns and free rein to roam U.S. communities. Their job is to enforce civil laws, but they act like they live in the wild west, killing people in our streets. Congress has to stop writing blank checks to these agencies and start enforcing order and accountability.”
