The impact of the government’s mass deportation purge has not been contained to abuses of the immigrant communities alone. They’re being felt by American citizens and American communities
One year ago this week, we launched Abuse of Power Watch, a real-time hub on Bluesky dedicated to documenting and exposing government overreach and abuses of power. Abuses that target our democratic values, our way of life and the freedoms of everyone living here no matter their legal immigration status. The past year, we’ve never been short on stories that are repulsive, shocking, violent and deadly, compiling over 578 stories to date.
Time and time again, as these stories make clear, this administration has disregarded the rule of law and undermined the dignity, rights, and freedoms that everyone deserves.
AUGUST 2025
Andrea Velez, a U.S. citizen and Cal Poly Pomona graduate, was dragged by masked men and subsequently jailed for two days despite trying to tell agents that she had I.D. in her purse. Her arrest at the hands of mass deportation agents was so violent that her mom and sister, who witnessed the incident, thought she was being kidnapped. The federal government also sought to prosecute her on a claim that she obstructed an arrest, but eventually dropped that charge. She has since sued the federal government, alleging civil rights violations.
📍𝐋𝐎𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐒, 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐀:U.S. citizen Andrea Velez was slammed to the ground by ICE agents, held 48 hours, and denied water for 24, despite showing ID. #AbuseofPowerWatch
— Abuse of Power Watch (@abuseofpowerwatch.bsky.social) 2025-08-13T14:27:39.205Z
SEPTEMBER 2025
Teen Vogue reported on a disturbing trend unique to the current administration: the growing number of civilian men impersonating anonymous mass deportation agents in order to assault women. “It wouldn’t be difficult to do as ICE agents increasingly wear plain clothes, conceal their faces to avoid accountability, and are not required to wear paraphernalia to identify themselves as officers,” the report said. In one of the horrific crimes cited in the article, one North Carolina man impersonated an ICE agent in order to kidnap and rape a woman.
📍 𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋:Civilian men are increasingly posing as ICE agents — wearing plain clothes, masks, unmarked vehicles, to kidnap, threaten, and sexually assault immigrant women. #AbuseofPowerWatch
— Abuse of Power Watch (@abuseofpowerwatch.bsky.social) 2025-09-23T14:59:59.518Z
OCTOBER 2025
Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) decried inhumane conditions at the CoreCivic-operated Farmville Detention Center in Virginia, citing rotten food containing worms and retaliation against detained whistleblowers who exposed unsafe conditions. “This disturbing event is aligned with the detention center’s dangerous history of abuse, brutality, and neglect,” said the National Immigration Project, which cited similar claims going back a decade. When detained people at the time brought conditions to staff’s attention “and demanded edible and not rotten food, they were brutalized with violence, including pepper spray and physical violence from staff.”
📍 𝐅𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐕𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐄, 𝐕𝐈𝐑𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐀:@beyer.house.gov is sounding the alarm after reports that detainees at the Farmville Detention Center were served rotten food with worms and faced retaliation when they complained. He’s demanding immediate federal action. #AbuseofPowerWatch
— Abuse of Power Watch (@abuseofpowerwatch.bsky.social) 2025-10-30T14:52:15.982Z
NOVEMBER 2025
The loved ones of Randall Alberto Gamboa Esquivel condemned his treatment under ICE custody as negligent and inhumane, after he fell into a vegetative state while in ICE custody and eventually died. Gamboa Esquivel, 52, had initially been in frequent contact with his family but then seemingly vanished for months. They were only told that he was not well. The Guardian reported that by the time they managed to locate him, he was “bedridden in a vegetative state, and his family’s attorney began the process of having him sent to Costa Rica,” where he died.
📍 𝐓𝐄𝐗𝐀𝐒:Randall Alberto Gamboa Esquivel, a 52-year-old man deported by ICE in a vegetative state following months in U.S. custody, died on October 26 after returning to Costa Rica. His family accuses the agency of negligence and inhumane treatment. #AbuseofPowerWatch
— Abuse of Power Watch (@abuseofpowerwatch.bsky.social) 2025-11-04T18:57:43.606Z
DECEMBER 2025
Elaine Miles, a Native American tribal member and “Northern Exposure” actor, was on her way to a bus stop when she was targeted by mass deportation agents, who accused her of faking her documents. “She offered them her ID card from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon but was told by an ICE agent that ‘anyone can make that,’” The Guardian reported. When Miles then tried to call the number on the back of the card to prove her status, an agent tried to snatch away her phone. “What we’re talking about here is racial profiling,” said one indigenous rights attorney.
📍 𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐃, 𝐖𝐀:Elaine Miles, a Native American actor, says she was stopped by ICE while walking to a bus stop — agents dismissed her legally issued tribal ID as “fake,” refused to verify it, tried to take her phone, and only released her after she was detained. #AbuseOfPowerWatch
— Abuse of Power Watch (@abuseofpowerwatch.bsky.social) 2025-12-01T18:28:01.861Z
JANUARY 2026
Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) released a horrific report exposing “more than a thousand credible reports of human rights abuses” in immigration detention centers, including “medical neglect, physical and sexual abuse, denial of adequate food and water, and the mistreatment of children and pregnant women.” Credible reports of human rights abuses received or identified by his office included 44 reports of women separated from their children, including breastfeeding infants; 26 credible reports of mistreatment of pregnant women; and 40 credible reports of mistreatment of children. The allegations “reveal an undeniable pattern of human rights abuse in immigration detention,” Ossoff said.
📍 𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋:A report from Sen. @ossoff.senate.gov has uncovered over 1,000 credible reports of abuses in ICE and broader immigration detention facilities — including medical neglect, denial of food and water, mistreatment of children and pregnant women, and physical/sexual abuse. #AbuseOfPowerWatch
— Abuse of Power Watch (@abuseofpowerwatch.bsky.social) 2026-01-28T16:03:25.998Z
FEBRUARY 2026
Americans found out that ICE’s involvement in the fatal shooting of U.S. citizen Ruben Ray Martinez had been kept a secret from the public for nearly a year. “Local media had reported on the shooting but it was not clear until this week that federal immigration officers were involved,” The Texas Tribune reported. ICE shot and killed Martinez, 25, during a traffic stop and accused him of trying to run over an agent with his car. However, like in other cases where federal immigration enforcement has falsely accused victims of weaponizing their vehicles, evidence later disproved that claim.
📍 𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐓𝐇 𝐏𝐀𝐃𝐑𝐄 𝐈𝐒𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃, 𝐓𝐗:Records show an ICE agent fatally shot 23-year-old U.S. citizen Ruben Ray Martinez during a traffic-stop enforcement operation last March, a killing that was not publicly tied to ICE until nearly a year later. #AbuseOfPowerWatch
— Abuse of Power Watch (@abuseofpowerwatch.bsky.social) 2026-02-23T15:23:43.166Z
MARCH 2026
ICE jailed a high schooler for nearly a year for simply trying to follow the rules by attending his immigration appointment. Dylan Lopez Contreras was sent to the abusive Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania, where he said officers treated him and other detained immigrants like “criminals.” ICE also refused to deliver hundreds of letters that supporters had written for the student, ultimately giving him just three of them. He was finally released that same month. Despite being separated from his family and friends for more than 300 days, his worry was for others still in detention. “I still have so many friends inside,” he said. “We have to continue fighting for them.”
📍 𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐘𝐎𝐑𝐊, 𝐍𝐘:ICE has now held a Bronx high school student for more than 10 months after arresting him at a routine immigration hearing — tearing him away from class, friends, and his education while he waits in detention. #AbuseOfPowerWatch
— Abuse of Power Watch (@abuseofpowerwatch.bsky.social) 2026-03-02T21:18:03.119Z
APRIL 2026
Alejandro Cabrera Clemente, 49, became the 16th person to die while in ICE custody this year — and 47th person to die while in federal immigration custody during the second Trump administration. ABC News reported that Cabrera Clemente was found unresponsive at the privately-operated Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana, becoming the 15th Mexican national to die while in ICE custody since last year. In a blistering statement, Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs blasted “serious deficiencies in ICE detention centers,” calling them “incompatible with human rights standards and the protection of life.”
📍 𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐈𝐒𝐈𝐀𝐍𝐀:A Mexican migrant has become the 47th person to die in ICE custody under the current administration, adding to a rapidly rising death toll that reflects worsening conditions and oversight failures in detention facilities. #AbuseOfPowerWatch
— Abuse of Power Watch (@abuseofpowerwatch.bsky.social) 2026-04-14T13:52:25.476Z
MAY 2026
U.S. citizen Kevin González made national headlines when he pleaded for federal immigration officials to release his detained parents so he could say goodbye. Kevin, just 18, was dying of stage four colon cancer and had just days left to live. “I ask that [immigration authorities] help me fulfill my last wish, if possible,” said the young man, who was under care of his grandmother in Mexico. It took an order from a judge to win their release, and the couple quickly rushed to Mexico to reunite with their son. Kevin died just one day later.
📍 𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐆𝐎, 𝐈𝐋:An 18-year-old Chicago teen with terminal cancer says his dying wish is to see his parents one last time — but both are being held in ICE detention, putting the family’s final goodbye in jeopardy. #AbuseOfPowerWatch
— Abuse of Power Watch (@abuseofpowerwatch.bsky.social) 2026-05-07T16:35:09.829Z
JUNE 2026
Nadir Hassan, a recent University at Buffalo graduate, was detained by ICE after traveling to Texas for a student engineering competition. Hassan had planned on returning home to New York City after the American Society of Civil Engineers student steel bridge competition, only to find himself targeted by mass deportation agents before boarding his flight. University officials were at a loss as to why. “UB has provided letters of support from faculty, classmates, and student organizations while attempting to learn more about his case,” WGRZ reported.
📍 𝐄𝐋 𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐎, 𝐓𝐗:A recent University at Buffalo graduate was detained by ICE agents while trying to board a flight home after participating in a national engineering competition. Family members and university officials say they have received no clear explanation for his detention. #AbuseOfPowerWatch
— Abuse of Power Watch (@abuseofpowerwatch.bsky.social) 2026-06-01T14:07:02.254Z
JULY 2026
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a father of three U.S. citizens, was killed during a traffic stop conducted by ICE. He was on his way to his construction business in Houston when ICE agents stopped him early one morning. Salgado Araujo was the 10th person to be fatally shot by ICE this year. He’d called the U.S. his home for the past 35 years, raised his three children, and was actively working to obtain legal status. One of his sons, Ronaldo, learned about his father’s death through a distressing social media video. “I recognized him immediately— not by his appearance, but by the sound of his voice crying in the street as he was bleeding out,” Ronaldo said.
📍 𝐓𝐄𝐗𝐀𝐒:Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was killed during an ICE encounter. Advocates and his family are calling for accountability and an independent investigation looking into his death. The case is adding to growing scrutiny of deaths connected to immigration enforcement operations. #AbuseOfPowerWatch
— Abuse of Power Watch (@abuseofpowerwatch.bsky.social) 2026-07-08T13:54:45.989Z
But as we witness these horrors day after day, “we have to guard our hearts and minds against the normalization of cruelty and the tolerance of the intolerable,” as America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas recently wrote. “We have to use this moment to organize — while the country is still watching, still uneasy, still willing to say enough.”
