Washington, DC – Armed with $240 billion from Congress, Donald Trump’s ICE spent the past week showing that its lawless reach has no limits and its leaders feel no obligation to answer for what its agents do. Across the country, the agency’s response to each new act of violence and disregard for the Constitution has followed the same script: go after anyone they deem undesirable, with impunity.
Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice, issued the following statement:
“Lawlessness and violence are the centerpiece of Trump’s mass deportation purge. What our nation is witnessing is abuse of power, plain and simple. Donald Trump and the allies who bankrolled his mass deportation campaign have built a rogue, out-of-control machine that fires on families, terrorizes children, and turns federal law enforcement against its critics, all without accountability. No American citizen, no family, no neighbor, and no elected official is safe from a DHS that operates as if it is above the law. This lawlessness and violence did not happen by accident. Congress funded this machine of fear and destruction, and Congress has the power to stop it. Lawmakers must stop ICE, demand independent investigations, and stop bankrolling this cruelty before more people are hurt.”
Every week, more and more examples of ICE’s week of unchecked violence:
- New York, New York: On October 8, an ICE officer opened fire on Oscar Bergal, a 28-year-old father, while he sat in his car with his 5-year-old child, striking him in the neck. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin responded by appearing to blame Bergal for endangering his own child.
- Houston, Texas: On October 10, an unmarked ICE vehicle struck and ran over Miguel Parra Hernandez, a 48-year-old stucco worker who ICE admits was not the target of its stop. According to advocates, he suffered leg and hip injuries and a shattered ankle, faces more surgery, and is now in the custody of the same agency that ran him down. The incident came less than two weeks after the administration issued new guidance requiring lights and sirens on vehicles used for stops.
- Harrison, New Jersey: On October 7, masked ICE agents arrested a man outside the town post office as children from his family cried and clung to him. Harrison’s mayor and town council asked local schools to provide counseling for the children who witnessed it.
- Washington, DC: On October 12, Homeland Security Investigations agents searched the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, one of the administration’s most outspoken critics on immigration, in what her office called an outrageous abuse of power.
- Nationwide: According to a CBS News review, federal immigration agents have killed nine people and injured 13 others in at least 30 shootings since Trump returned to office.
