Trump and his allies built a mass deportation machine that is tearing parents from their children on the way to school, pulling parents from cars as kids cling to them in tears, and firing into a vehicle with a 5-year-old inside. Congressional Republicans handed that machine $240 billion which operates with impunity. The result is that families and children across the country – U.S. citizens among them – are living with the devastating consequences.
The ICE machine Trump and his enablers built is facilitating an unparalleled abuse of power. The violence and lawlessness continues unchecked, finding new ways to intrude on the rule of law. Just recently the Department of Homeland Security stepped in to go after Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and search her home. Voters know and the polls reflect that Americans reject their privacy being invaded by an out-of-control Federal government. As voters continue to reject this lawlessness, especially Latino voters, and some Republicans are now trying to distance themselves from an agenda they enabled. The record shows they can’t run from the mass deportation machine they built
Here’s what the record shows:
Children and Families Are Bearing the Brunt of the Cruelty
- Nationwide: An estimated 145,000 U.S. children had a parent detained by immigration authorities between January 20, 2025 and April 9, 2026, according to a Brookings Institution analysis. “There’s literally no one in any government who is responsible for making sure their child is OK,” one Brookings researcher said.
- Nationwide: Immigration agents have detained 506 U.S. citizens since Trump took office, including at least 70 children and teens, according to a ProPublica investigation. About 20 of those children were handcuffed or zip-tied, even though DHS claims “ICE does not zip tie or restrain children.” Roughly a dozen citizens were deported, most of them children.
- Nationwide: Unaccompanied migrant children went without a lawyer in about 55% of nearly 50,000 immigration cases completed as of August, the highest share since 2019, according to the Vera Institute of Justice. The administration let the contract for these children’s legal services expire in July. Deportation orders for unaccompanied minors topped 7,300 in July, up from 2,000 in January 2025.
- New York: An ICE agent shot and wounded a man in his car in the Bronx’s Marble Hill neighborhood while his 5-year-old child sat in the back seat. “Early reports indicate agents surrounded (the man) and a 5-year-old child in his car before firing multiple rounds,” New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said. Police say at least one officer fired seven rounds.
- New Jersey: In Harrison, ICE agents pulled a man from his vehicle while children clung to him and cried. DHS confirmed two children were inside the vehicle when the arrest started. Local officials called it “heartbreaking to hear of children witnessing such a frightening and potentially traumatic experience in their own community” and asked the school district to provide counseling.
- Connecticut: ICE agents boxed in Nancy Martinez’s car as she drove her two children to school in New Haven, handcuffed her in front of them, and deported her to Mexico a month later. Her 9-year-old son, who has autism, now asks school staff why they took his mother away. “When ICE took away my mom, they took away my best friend,” her daughter said.
The Machine Is Growing More Violent – By Design
- Nationwide: Federal immigration agents have shot at at least 25 people since Trump took office, killing six – including three U.S. citizens. Nearly all of the shootings involved agents firing at people in vehicles. About half of those later charged with crimes after the encounters have had their cases dismissed.
- Nationwide: Border czar Tom Homan vowed the crackdown will not let up: “You can hate us all you want. We’re not going anywhere.” He promised ICE will “surge resources and flood the zone” in sanctuary cities. ICE is also preparing to hire 5,000 more employees by the end of the year, most of them deportation officers.
- Nationwide: ICE made nearly 51,000 arrests in August, the highest monthly total on record, according to DHS. In July, half of ICE arrests targeted people with no prior contact with the criminal justice system. Advocates call it a “shadow surge”: enforcement that is “much quieter, but no less violent or deadly.”
- Nationwide: Local police are increasingly doing ICE’s work. Roughly 2,000 state and local law enforcement agencies have signed agreements with ICE, and since June the agency has set new monthly records for signing up local partners.
- Texas: Outside Houston, an unmarked ICE vehicle struck Miguel Parra Hernandez as he ran on foot, leaving him with leg and hip injuries and a shattered ankle. Parra, who has lived in the U.S. for 34 years with no criminal record according to his attorney, wasn’t the target of the stop. The Harris County District Attorney has opened an investigation, and investigators believe the collision was intentional. Parra remains in ICE custody at the hospital.
Voters Have Seen the Cruelty, Especially Latino Voters
- Latino voters: Trump’s approval among Latino voters sits at 27%, while 69% disapprove of his handling of immigration. Two-thirds say his deportation policies have gone too far. Though 83% support deporting undocumented immigrants who have committed serious crimes, only 37% support deporting everyone here illegally.
- Latino families: More than a quarter of Latino voters (27%) know someone who has been deported or detained by ICE in the past two years. Nearly a third (31%) say they or someone close to them started carrying identification because of ICE, and 18% have considered leaving the country.
- Feeling it most: 59% of Latino voters have personally seen immigration enforcement disrupt their community, compared with 38% of voters overall.
- Trump’s own voters: 32% of Latino and 34% of Black Americans who voted for Trump now regret it – double the rate of white Trump voters (16%). Twenty-two percent of moms who voted for him feel the same way. Pew finds some of the steepest drops in Trump’s approval among Hispanic and younger voters who backed him in 2024.
- Beyond the base: Non-MAGA Trump voters are more than twice as likely as MAGA Trump voters to say the mass deportation campaign is too aggressive (31% to 14%). Fewer than a quarter of either group want ICE to prioritize people with minor criminal offenses. That support drops even further when it comes to people who have lived here for years or have children in the U.S.
- Even Republican elected officials see it: Republican senators now warn that the deportation campaign has gone too far. “Once you start deporting people who have been here without incident for 15, 20 years, that’s a gray zone,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX). “I always thought that this idea of mass deportations sent the wrong message.” In the House, some Republicans are now publicly breaking with Trump on deportations, despite having voted last year to approve billions of dollars for immigration enforcement.
The bottom line: Trump and his allies built a deportation machine that fires into cars with 5-year-olds inside, handcuffs parents in front of their children, and leaves U.S.-citizen kids without a mother or father. Congressional Republicans funded that machine — they built it, they own it. Americans, especially Latino voters, are rejecting this cruelty. Congress must rein in ICE, keep enforcement away from children and the places families depend on, and demand accountability for every dollar ICE spends.
