Still Happening:
ICE Abuse and Overreach
Every day, the Trump administration is using its already unprecedented DHS funding to terrorize communities, abduct citizens and legal residents alike, and tear families apart. The harm being inflicted hasn't stopped. Below is a snapshot of how ICE and CBP continue to hurt our communities with the billions Congress has already provided.
Republicans are now forcing through a bill that would hand ICE and CBP another $70 billion, on top of the more than $100 billion those agencies are already sitting on unspent, with no offsets, no accountability mechanisms, and no demonstrated capacity from either agency to absorb more funding.
Here are just a sampling of stories from recent days that continue to show the Trump Administration is pushing ahead on its wrong and deeply unpopular immigration actions:
U.S. Citizen Detained by ICE for a Third Time in Alabama
Tackled outside his own home, shackled, and ignored when he showed his REAL ID.
Baldwin County, Alabama resident and U.S. citizen Leo Garcia Venegas — already suing ICE over two prior unlawful detentions — says agents followed him from a convenience store, pulled him over outside his Silverhill home, pulled him from his car, tackled him to the ground, and shackled him, according to Fox10 News. Officers reportedly refused to look at his Alabama STAR REAL ID. His lawyer says the pattern shows ICE is targeting construction workers based on appearance, without warrants.
Mother Deported Without Her Toddler — Who Was Then Killed
ICE ignored her pleas to be removed with her 2-year-old. Then ICE blamed her for his murder.
In a devastating investigation, The Washington Post details how 29-year-old Wendy Hernandez Reyes was detained at an Alabama traffic stop, handed to ICE under a 287(g) agreement by the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office, and deported to Honduras less than a month later — without her 2-year-old U.S. citizen son Orlin, despite her repeated pleas to be removed with him.
Five weeks after her deportation, Orlin was beaten to death by the only relative available to care for him. The medical examiner declared the death a homicide caused by multiple blunt force traumas. Acting ICE Director Todd M. Lyons then issued a public statement blaming Hernandez for her son’s killing.
Nothing in federal law requires ICE to check on a child’s caregiver after detaining their parents. The Post reports that requests from parents to be deported with their children are often ignored.
Tucson DACA Recipient Arrested by ICE at Her Home
Video shows agents at her door as her family asks: “Where is the warrant?”
Longtime Tucson resident and DACA recipient Karla Toledo, 31, was arrested by ICE agents at her home on May 18, Arizona Luminaria reports. Her family says agents had no warrant. Toledo came to Tucson at age 1 and has a clean record. ICE later confirmed she was detained in a targeted enforcement operation and stated that DACA status does not protect recipients from deportation — a sharp break from how prior administrations treated DACA holders. Rep. Adelita Grijalva visited Toledo in custody and called for her immediate release.
Bronx Citizen Bloodied in Wrongful ICE Detention
Agents took him down, realized they had the wrong guy, and dropped him at a park.
CBS New York reports that 19-year-old Bronx resident and U.S. citizen Jeury Concepcion was wrestled to the ground by ICE agents outside a bodega, handcuffed, and bloodied before agents looked at his ID, realized they had the wrong person, apologized, and dropped him off at a park far from his home. His grandmother rushed him to the hospital, where he received several stitches. The incident happened one day before his 20th birthday.
85-Year-Old French Widow Held 16 Days by ICE
The widow of a U.S. military veteran, taken from her home in pajamas and slippers.
In her first interview since her release, 85-year-old Marie-Therese Ross — a French widow of a U.S. military veteran — described the 16 days she spent in ICE detention in Louisiana after being arrested in Alabama on April 1, The Associated Press reports. During her detention, Ross was housed in a dormitory-style room alongside 58 other women, predominantly mothers. “Children crying, and even babies,” she recalled of the nights. She added, “Some of them didn’t know where their children were. I think it’s terrible for a woman not to know where her children are.” The French foreign minister publicly called for her release.
ICE Agent Charged With Felony Assault in Minneapolis Shooting
The second federal officer charged in Minnesota over Operation Metro Surge.
State prosecutors have charged ICE agent Christian J. Castro with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime in the January shooting of Venezuelan immigrant Julio C. Sosa-Celis, The New York Times reports. Federal officials initially described a minutes-long attack on the agent with a broom and shovel. But video footage obtained by the Times showed no sustained attack and contradicted that account. The encounter lasted about 12 seconds. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said her office is investigating more than 30 additional incidents of possible criminal misconduct by federal agents.
