Unchecked violence, unaccountable to the rule of law, un-American by any measure of honor and decency. Part one of a two-part series
Turbo-charged by a combined $240 billion in unchecked funding from Congress, Donald Trump has built a lawless mass deportation ICE and Border Patrol machine that has no limits to its abuse of power and leaders that feel no obligation to answer to the Constitution, the rule of law or the American people. The result has been armed, masked agents inflicting violence and pain in communities all across the country. Anyone has been fair game – no matter their legal status or citizenship: brutal deaths, unjust detentions, brazen lawlessness, unabashed cruelty, racial profiling, lack of due process and economic fallout threatening the wellbeing of American families, industry and jobs.
In part one of a two-part series, we review some of the abuses of power from year one of the second Trump administration.
YEAR ONE: THE SECOND TRUMP ADMINISTRATION BEGINS
- On his very first day back in power, Trump attacked the Constitution’s 14th Amendment – which has shaped the nation’s understanding of citizenship and served as a cornerstone of American civil rights – by signing an unlawful executive order purporting to limit birthright citizenship and radically redefine who gets to be an American. If fully implemented, it would have turned every delivery room into an immigration checkpoint and every OBGYN into an immigration officer to check the papers of every parent. The administration’s attempt to rewrite our Constitution via Sharpie was eventually blocked by the Supreme Court. “In defiance of the Supreme Court’s ruling, President Trump issued a second executive order on Aug. 6, 2026, again attempting to restrict birthright citizenship,” said the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
- In March, ICE shot and killed U.S. citizen RUBEN RAY MARTINEZ during a traffic stop in South Texas and subsequently kept the 23-year-old’s death a secret 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 would report in February 2026. Following the disclosure, the government claimed Martinez had attempted to strike the agent with his car. Body cam footage would eventually prove this claim was a lie. This deadly traffic stop would also become one of the earliest examples of what have come to be called “Kavanaugh stops” – named after Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who wrote on behalf of the majority that ruled in favor of unwarranted stops. For Kavanaugh, it was simply an “inconvenience” for U.S. citizens to be stopped by law enforcement for no reason. In reality, terror, bodily harm and destruction of American citizens has followed in the wake of this “inconvenience.”
- The same month that Martinez was killed in Texas, Maryland father KILMAR ÁBREGO GARCÍA was one of hundreds of men who were unjustly purged by the administration to a torture prison in El Salvador, where he said he was subjected to “severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture.” Ábrego García would get just one weekend back with his family after more than 160 days apart before officials again targeted him. Intense attention around the administration’s obsession with this Maryland dad marked one of the first major hits to Trump’s polling numbers, which saw his immigration approval rating crater by double digits points. Net approval for mass deportation fell by 20 percentage points when respondents learned about Ábrego Garcia’s case, data journalist G. Elliott Morris wrote. “An effect of this magnitude roughly matches the total decline in Trump’s approval rating on deportations since early March,” he continued.
SUMMER 2025: THE CHAOS GROWS
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The growing chaos, cruelty, and overreach of Trump’s mass deportation obsession spilled into American streets beginning in June, when he fulfilled a campaign promise to deploy the full force of the government against the American people. In L.A., Trump hijacked California National Guard troops in a provocation against community members sickened over ICE’s targeting of hardworking day laborers. This mass deportation agenda did not spare U.S. citizens, either. Disabled U.S. military veteran GEORGE RETES and expectant mom CARY LÓPEZ ALVARADO were targeted solely due to their appearance, highlighting the continued consequences of racial profiling otherwise known as Kavanaugh stops. In D.C. – where Trump also federalized the National Guard – restaurants saw a dramatic drop in business as ICE abducted food delivery workers in broad daylight.
These raids backfired in California, where nearly three-quarters of registered voters, including half of Republicans, said mass deportation would hurt local economies. It was a similar story in D.C., where almost 80% of residents said they opposed the ineffective and wasteful federal takeover. -
Horrific footage captured by a bystander showed L.A. resident NARCISO BARRANCO, a landscaper and dad of three U.S. Marines, being punched and kidnapped by masked agents while he was working. “On his first call to his son after the detainment, Barranco was less concerned with his injuries and more concerned with his job,” the Los Angeles Times reported. “He told him where his truck and equipment were and asked him to speak with his client and finish the job, the younger Barranco said.” Narciso, who has lived here for more than three decades, was finally released on bond after weeks in immigration custody and was visibly distraught following his ordeal, his family said. “We’re willing to give all this for this country and then they take our parents like this,” said his son Alejandro. “I don’t think it’s fair.”
Following the pattern of earlier polling, the more Americans witnessed this ugliness, the more they were repelled. CBS/YouGov’s July polling found 56-44% disapproval of Trump on immigration. It was evenly divided, 50-50%, just the previous month. -
Again in L.A., ICE held a 15-YEAR-OLD MINOR at gunpoint outside his school despite protests that he was a U.S. citizen and not the person in a photo shown by mass deportation agents. “They handcuffed me and kept telling me who this person is, and I was like, ‘I don’t know who that person is,’” said the teen, who according to his mom has special needs. When agents finally uncuffed the boy, his mom said agents “implied it was a worthwhile experience for him,” NBC News reported. “[One agent] was like, ‘Oh, we confused him with somebody else, but look at the bright side: You’re going to have an exciting story to tell your friends when you go back to school,’” she said. “What’s exciting about getting guns pointed at you?”
FALL 2025: ICE EXPANDS ITS TERROR ROADSHOW
- In September, the administration launched the chaotic and lawless Operation Midway Blitz, which included a military-style raid of a Chicago apartment complex that targeted residents with no regard to their legal immigration status or age. Armed federal agents “broke down doors without warrants” and “rounded up adults and children alike at gunpoint in the middle of the night,” including a one-year-old baby, ProPublica reported. The administration eventually removed Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Greg Bovino, who at one time admitted that he wanted to attack the city “with reckless abandon.” Mirroring earlier trends in L.A. and D.C., polling showed that “exposure to ICE played a role in voters’ reaction to the agency, with 73% of those who saw raids in their neighborhoods holding an unfavorable view of the agency,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
- That same month in Illinois, ICE launched pepper balls and chemical spray against faith leaders peacefully bearing witness outside the Broadview facility, including REV. DAVID BLACK. “One struck Black in the head, exploding into a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees,” Religion News Service reported. “Fellow demonstrators rushed to his aid, and as the pastor rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued to fire.”
View this post on InstagramIn October, the administration continued its attacks on Americans’ freedoms by similarly deploying pepper-spray bullets and tear-gas against at least four journalists who were covering protests. Chicago-area media organizations successfully sued, saying ICE engaged in a “pattern of extreme brutality” that they claimed was a “concerted and ongoing effort to silence the press and civilians.”
- The Trump administration’s own Labor Department quietly filed an “obscure” document at the Federal Register conceding that its anti-immigrant policies are posing an “immediate” danger to our nation’s food supply by targeting essential farmworkers and threatening to drive up grocery costs even more. Polling released during this period found Trump’s immigration approval remained underwater, with eight separate surveys showing disapprovals averaging 53%. “The first-person videos of masked agents arresting immigrants—often in broad daylight, in public spaces, at times separating zip-tied parents from children howling in anguish—have reached escape velocity across social media platforms,” noted one political reporter.
2025 would end on a tragically unprecedented note. One analysis found that the year would become ICE’s deadliest in two decades, with at least 32 individuals dying while in custody of the mass deportation agency. Some died while detained in private prisons that hold lucrative, taxpayer-funded contracts with the federal government. Others lost their lives “after repeatedly trying and failing to get medical care,” The Guardian reported. Marie Ange Blaise, an immigrant originally from Haiti, died while detained at the GEO Group-operated Broward Transitional Center. “She complained of having chest pains and abdominal cramps, and when she asked the detention staff to see a physician, they refused her,” her son said in the report. December would become “the deadliest month in ICE custody – seven people died,” The Guardian continued.
But instead of Americans seeing urgent course-correction by the administration, 2025 was a horrific preview of continued abuses in the year to come. Part two of this series to follow next week.
