Washington, DC — One year ago, federal immigration raids in Los Angeles triggered days of protests and the deployment of the National Guard, marking a significant escalation in the militarization of immigration enforcement. Over the following twelve months, that approach expanded nationwide. Daily immigration arrests more than tripled, ICE detention reached record highs, more than 6,300 children were detained, and hunger strikes erupted in detention facilities across the country amid growing concerns about conditions, medical care, and accountability. Federal immigration operations also became increasingly deadly, violent and unchecked, resulting in the deaths of U.S. citizens, wrongful detentions, excessive force, and enforcement tactics that alarmed civil rights advocates, local communities, and elected officials
Simultaneously, the Trump administration is pursuing an aggressive effort to strip legal protections from immigrants and expand deportation authority. Temporary Protected Status and humanitarian parole protections were terminated for more than a million people, DACA recipients faced heightened vulnerability to detention and deportation. As enforcement expanded, U.S. citizens, military families, and longtime residents with deep ties to their communities were increasingly caught in its dragnet. Congress is now considering giving even more money – upwards of $70 billion – to this violent, anti-immigrant agenda.
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
“Los Angeles raids were the opening act of a violent and brutal chapter that seeks to make it impossible for immigrants to live peaceful lives– no matter the price to our collective safety, humanity or even our wallet. The violence and cruelty has always been the point. After all the punishment inflicted on immigrants and Americans by our own government, the mass deportation campaign continues unabated. In fact, just yesterday DHS Secretary Mullin declined to clearly state that DHS would comply with court orders, implying that the Trump administration believes immigration enforcement should operate above the law.
And yet, Republicans in Congress are poised to give Donald Trump and Stephen Miller even more money to expand their unfettered abuse of power. A year into this madness and the choice for all Americans is clear: condone violence, chaos, corruption or fight for accountability and basic American values.”
See below recent examples of how the administration’s mass deportation agenda and growing unchecked immigration enforcement have made the country poorer, weaker, and less safe.
POORER
- Minnesota Reformer “Study: Operation Metro Surge cost Minnesota an estimated 4,600 hospitality jobs in 3 months,” reported that, “Operation Metro Surge cost Minnesota’s leisure and hospitality sector an estimated 4,600 jobs and $71 million in wages, according to a new study. The analysis of the economic fallout from the unprecedented immigration crackdown adds to a growing body of research showing the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation agenda is hurting the labor market, affecting immigrant and native-born workers alike.”
- Forbes, “New Research Finds ICE Immigration Raids Harm The Economy,” reported that, “New research shows Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests harm local economies by reducing consumer spending. Data indicate shopping declined as ICE raids increased in many local areas. An earlier study concluded ICE arrests harmed U.S.-born workers, including those with a high school education or less.”
- Politico “Punishing airports over immigration would lead to ‘so much economic damage,’ Sen. Andy Kim says,” reported that, “Sen. Andy Kim on Sunday warned that proposed punishments on airports over immigration protests could cause widespread economic damage. “It would do so much economic damage,” Kim said, referencing the city of Newark in his own state. “If you try to shut down or make it hard for people to be able to fly into Newark, that’s going to have repercussions all across our country. So, you know, it makes no sense.””
WEAKER
- PBS News, “Trump’s mass deportation campaign takes a toll on college students,” reported that, “Students who have lived through the experience here over the past several months with the Metro Surge, clearly, that trauma has affected them. I can see it in their faces. You can actually see it, especially here at the end of our semester, the weariness, the fatigue, just the stress.”
- The New York Times, “Trump Squeezes Immigrants by Cutting Them Off From Jobs, Health Care and Housing,” reported that, “The administration’s strategy, along with the threat of arrest and imprisonment, has helped drive many immigrants underground, intimidating them from filing taxes, visiting doctors and even traveling.”
- Associated Press, “From festering infections to untreated cancer, ICE detainees across the US describe medical neglect,” reported that, “Hundreds of detainees across at least 33 states allege in federal lawsuits that immigration detention facilities are failing to provide adequate medical care, an investigation by KFF Health News and The Associated Press found. Detainees say they didn’t get medications on time — or at all — for conditions including high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, epilepsy, Parkinson’s and HIV. Requests for help went unanswered for weeks. Blood sugars rose. Infections festered. Cancers remained untreated. Detainees collapsed and had seizures.”
LESS SAFE
- Politico, “Trump’s immigration enforcers look into buying ad data. Industry insiders fear what comes next,” reported that, “The trillion-dollar industry that amasses and shares troves of Americans’ information is confronting a new ethical quandary — the Trump administration’s interest in wielding this data to potentially further its sweeping immigration agenda.”
- CBS News, “Children “held like criminals” inside ICE detention center,” reported that, “More than 6,300 children under 18, some as young as two months old, have been detained by federal immigration authorities during President Trump’s second term. Nearly half have been detained at Dilley. Ninety-seven percent had no criminal record.”
- EducationWeek, “Schools Saw Rising Student Anxiety From Immigration Enforcement in 2025-26,” reported that, “The effects of heightened immigration enforcement across the country continued to ripple through K-12 schools this spring, with educators reporting increased student anxiety and fear, higher absenteeism, and greater counseling needs, according to new national survey data.”
The New York Times, “Protesters Arrested at Immigration Detention Center as Tensions Rise,” reported that, “Violent clashes between demonstrators and federal agents erupted early on Friday outside an immigration detention center in Newark after nearly a week of protests over living conditions at the facility. Just past midnight, about 50 activists convened in front of about 30 federal agents. A group of officers charged into the crowd, and several protesters were pushed to the ground as officers sprayed a chemical irritant.”
