\n<\/p>\n
ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they\u2019re published.<\/p>\n
\n These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story. \n <\/p>\n When Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers stormed through Santa Ana, California, in June, panicked calls flooded into the city\u2019s emergency response system.<\/p>\n Recordings of those calls, obtained by ProPublica, captured some of the terror residents felt as they watched masked men ambush people and force them into unmarked cars. In some cases, the men wore plain clothes and refused to identify themselves. There was no way to confirm whether they were immigration agents or imposters. In six of the calls to Santa Ana police, residents described what they were seeing as kidnappings.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s bleeding,\u201d one caller said about a person he saw yanked from a car wash lot and beaten. \u201cThey dumped him into a white van. It doesn\u2019t say ICE.\u201d<\/p>\n One woman\u2019s voice shook as she asked, \u201cWhat kind of police go around without license plates?\u201d<\/p>\n And then this from another: \u201cShould we just run from them?\u201d<\/p>\n During a tense public meeting days later, Mayor Valerie Amezcua and the City Council asked their police chief whether there was anything they could do to rein in the federal agents \u2014 even if only to ban the use of masks. The answer was a resounding no. Plus, filing complaints with the Department of Homeland Security was likely to go nowhere because the office that once handled them had been dismantled. There was little chance of holding individual agents accountable for alleged abuses because, among other hurdles, there was no way to reliably learn their identities.<\/p>\n Since then, Amezcua, 58, said she has reluctantly accepted the reality: There are virtually no limits on what federal agents can do to achieve President Donald Trump\u2019s goal of mass deportations. Santa Ana has proven to be a template for much larger raids and even more violent arrests in Chicago and elsewhere. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like he tries it out in this county and says, \u2018It worked there<\/em>, so now let me send them there<\/em>,\u2019\u201d Amezcua said.<\/p>\n Santa Ana residents chant about ICE raids during a City Council meeting in June.<\/span><\/p>\n Current and former national security officials share the mayor\u2019s concerns. They describe the legions of masked immigration officers operating in near-total anonymity on the orders of the president as the crossing of a line that had long set the United States apart from the world\u2019s most repressive regimes. ICE, in their view, has become an unfettered and unaccountable national police force. The transformation, the officials say, unfolded rapidly and in plain sight. Trump\u2019s DHS appointees swiftly dismantled civil rights guardrails, encouraged agents to wear masks, threatened groups and state governments that stood in their way, and then made so many arrests that the influx overwhelmed lawyers trying to defend immigrants taken out of state or out of the country.<\/p>\n And although they are reluctant to predict the future, the current and former officials worry that this force assembled from federal agents across the country could eventually be turned against any groups the administration labels a threat.<\/p>\n One former senior DHS official who was involved in oversight said that what is happening on American streets today \u201cgives me goosebumps.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, the official rattled off scenes that once would\u2019ve triggered investigations: \u201cAccosting people outside of their immigration court hearings where they\u2019re showing up and trying to do the right thing and then hauling them off to an immigration jail in the middle of the country where they can\u2019t access loved ones or speak to counsel. Bands of masked men apprehending people in broad daylight in the streets and hauling them off. Disappearing people to a third country, to a prison where there\u2019s a documented record of serious torture and human rights abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n The former official paused. \u201cWe\u2019re at an inflection point in history right now and it\u2019s frightening.\u201d<\/p>\n Although ICE is conducting itself out in the open, even inviting conservative social media influencers to accompany its agents on high-profile raids, the agency operates in darkness. The identities of DHS officers, their salaries and their operations have long been withheld for security reasons and generally exempted from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. However, there were offices within DHS created to hold agents and their supervisors accountable for their actions on the job. The Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, created by Congress and led largely by lawyers, investigated allegations of rape and unlawful searches from both the public and within DHS ranks, for instance. Egregious conduct was referred to the Justice Department.<\/p>\n The CRCL office had limited powers; former staffers say their job was to protect DHS by ensuring personnel followed the law and addressed civil rights concerns. Still, it was effective in stalling rushed deportations or ensuring detainees had access to phones and lawyers. And even when its investigations didn\u2019t fix problems, CRCL provided an accounting of allegations and a measure of transparency for Congress and the public.<\/p>\n The office processed thousands of complaints \u2014 3,000 in fiscal year 2023 alone \u2014 ranging from allegations of lack of access to medical treatment to reports of sexual assault at detention centers. Former staffers said around 600 complaints were open when work was suspended.<\/p>\n The administration has gutted most of the office. What\u2019s left of it was led, at least for a while, by a 29-year-old White House appointee who helped craft Project 2025, the right-wing blueprint that broadly calls for the curtailment of civil rights enforcement.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, ICE is enjoying a windfall in resources. On top of its annual operating budget of $10 billion a year, the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill included an added $7.5 billion a year for the next four years for recruiting and retention alone. As part of its hiring blitz, the agency has dropped age, training and education standards and has offered recruits signing bonuses as high as $50,000.<\/p>\n \u201cSupercharging this law enforcement agency and at the same time you have oversight being eliminated?\u201d said the former DHS official. \u201cThis is very scary.\u201d<\/p>\n Michelle Bran\u00e9, a longtime human rights attorney who directed DHS\u2019 ombudsman office during the Biden administration, said Trump\u2019s adherence to \u201cthe authoritarian playbook is not even subtle.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cICE, their secret police, is their tool,\u201d Bran\u00e9 said. \u201cOnce they have that power, which they have now, there\u2019s nothing stopping them from using it against citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n Tricia McLaughlin, the DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, refuted descriptions of ICE as a secret police force. She called such comparisons the kind of \u201csmears and demonization\u201d that led to the recent attack on an ICE facility in Texas, in which a gunman targeted an ICE transport van and shot three detained migrants, two of them fatally, before killing himself.<\/p>\n In a written response to ProPublica, McLaughlin dismissed the current and former national security officials and scholars interviewed by ProPublica as \u201cfar-left champagne socialists\u201d who haven\u2019t seen ICE enforcement up close.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they had,\u201d she wrote, \u201cthey would know when our heroic law enforcement officers conduct operations, they clearly identify themselves as law enforcement while wearing masks to protect themselves from being targeted by highly sophisticated gangs\u201d and other criminals.<\/p>\n McLaughlin said the recruiting blitz is not compromising standards. She wrote that the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center is ready for 11,000 new hires by the beginning of next year and that training has been streamlined and boosted by technology. \u201cOur workforce never stops learning,\u201d McLaughlin wrote.<\/p>\n White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson also praised ICE conduct and accused Democrats of making \u201cdangerous, untrue smears.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cICE officers act heroically to enforce the law, arrest criminal illegal aliens and protect American communities with the utmost professionalism,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cAnyone pointing the finger at law enforcement officers instead of the criminals are simply doing the bidding of criminal illegal aliens and fueling false narratives that lead to violence.\u201d<\/p>\n Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the Trump pick who fired nearly the entire civil rights oversight staff, said the move was in response to CRCL functioning \u201cas internal adversaries that slow down operations,\u201d according to a DHS spokesperson.<\/p>\n Trump also eliminated the department\u2019s Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, which was charged with flagging inhumane conditions at ICE detention facilities where many of the apprehended immigrants are held. The office was resurrected after a lawsuit and court order, though it\u2019s sparsely staffed.<\/p>\n The hobbling of the office comes as the White House embarks on an aggressive expansion of detention sites with an eye toward repurposing old jails or building new ones with names that telegraph harsh conditions: \u201cAlligator Alcatraz\u201d in the Florida Everglades, built by the state and operated in partnership with DHS, or the \u201cCornhusker Clink\u201d in Nebraska.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a shocking situation to be in that I don\u2019t think anybody anticipated a year ago,\u201d said Erica Frantz, a political scientist at Michigan State University who studies authoritarianism. \u201cWe might\u2019ve thought that we were going to see a slide, but I don\u2019t think anybody anticipated how quickly it would transpire, and now people at all levels are scrambling to figure out how to push back.\u201d<\/p>\n Scenes from the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building\u2019s U.S. Immigration Court in New York City, where federal agents working for ICE detain immigrants and asylum-seekers reporting for court proceedings<\/span><\/p>\n Frantz and other scholars who study anti-democratic political systems in other countries said there are numerous examples in which ICE\u2019s activities appear cut from an authoritarian playbook. Among them was the detention of Tufts University doctoral student R\u00fcmeysa \u00d6zt\u00fcrk, who was apprehended after co-writing an op-ed for the campus paper that criticized the school\u2019s response to the war in Gaza. ICE held her incommunicado for 24 hours and then shuffled her through three states before jailing her in Louisiana.<\/p>\n \u201cThe thing that got me into the topic of \u2018maybe ICE is a secret police force\u2019?\u201d said Lee Morgenbesser, an Australian political science professor who studies authoritarianism. \u201cIt was that daylight snatching of the Tufts student.\u201d<\/p>\n Morgenbesser was also struck by the high-profile instances of ICE detaining elected officials who attempted to stand in their way. Among them, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was detained for demanding a judicial warrant from ICE, and U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla was forcibly removed from a DHS press conference.<\/p>\n And David Sklansky, a Stanford Law School professor who researches policing and democracy, said it appears that ICE\u2019s agents are allowed to operate with complete anonymity. \u201cIt\u2019s not just that people can\u2019t see faces of the officers,\u201d Sklansky said. \u201cThe officers aren\u2019t wearing shoulder insignia or name tags.\u201d<\/p>\n U.S. District Judge William G. Young, a Ronald Reagan appointee, recently pointed out that use of masked law enforcement officers had long been considered anathema to American ideals. In a blistering ruling against the administration\u2019s arrests of pro-Palestinian protesters, he wrote, \u201cTo us, masks are associated with cowardly desperados and the despised Ku Klux Klan. In all our history we have never tolerated an armed masked secret police.\u201d The Trump administration has said it will appeal that ruling.<\/p>\n Federal agents stand guard outside an ICE detention facility in Newark, N.J. The Trump administration authorized the deployment of National Guard units at immigration facilities, escalating its use of the military as part of the president\u2019s immigration crackdown.<\/span><\/p>\n The fallout is being felt in places like Hays County, Texas, not far from Austin, where ICE apprehended 47 people, including nine children, during a birthday celebration in the early morning of April 1.<\/p>\n The agency\u2019s only disclosure about the raid in Dripping Springs describes the operation as part of a yearlong investigation targeting \u201cmembers and associates believed to be part of the Venezuelan transnational gang, Tren de Aragua.\u201d<\/p>\n Six months later, the county\u2019s top elected official told ProPublica the federal government has ignored his attempts to get answers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not told why they took them, and we\u2019re not told where they took them,\u201d said County Judge Ruben Becerra, a Democrat. \u201cBy definition, that\u2019s a kidnapping.\u201d<\/p>\n In the raid, a Texas trooper secured a search warrant that allowed law enforcement officers to breach the home, an Airbnb rental on a vast stretch of land in the Hill Country. Becerra told ProPublica he believes the suspicion of drugs at the party was a pretense to pull people out of the house so ICE officers who lacked a warrant could take them into custody. The Texas Department of Public Safety did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n The Trump administration has yet to produce evidence supporting claims of gang involvement, said Karen Mu\u00f1oz, a civil rights attorney helping families track down their relatives who were jailed or deported. While some court documents are sealed, nothing in the public record verifies the gang affiliation DHS cited as the cause for the birthday party raid.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no evidence released at all that any person kidnapped at that party was a member of any organized criminal group,\u201d Mu\u00f1oz said.<\/p>\n McLaughlin, the DHS spokesperson, did not respond to questions about Hays County and other raids where families and attorneys allege a lack of transparency and due process.<\/p>\n ICE agents knock on the door of a residence during a multiagency enforcement operation in Chicago in January.<\/span><\/p>\n Months after ICE\u2019s widely publicized raids, fear continues to envelop Santa Ana, a majority-Hispanic city with a large immigrant population. Amezcua, the mayor, said the raids have complicated local policing and rendered parents afraid to pick up their children from school. The city manager, a California-born citizen and Latino, carries with him three government IDs, including a passport.<\/p>\n Raids of car washes and apartment buildings continue, but the community has started to \u201cpush back,\u201d Amezcua said. \u201cLike many other communities, the neighbors come out. People stop in the middle of traffic.\u201d<\/p>\n With so few institutional checks on ICE\u2019s powers, citizens are increasingly relying on themselves. On at least one occasion in nearby Downey, a citizen\u2019s intervention had some effect.<\/p>\n On June 12, Melyssa Rivas had just started her workday when a colleague burst into her office with urgent news: \u201cICE is here.\u201d<\/p>\n The commotion was around the corner in Rivas\u2019 hometown, a Los Angeles suburb locals call \u201cMexican Beverly Hills\u201d for its stately houses and affluent Hispanic families. Rivas, 31, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, belongs to Facebook groups where residents share updates about cultural festivals, church programs and, these days, the presence of Trump\u2019s deportation foot soldiers.<\/p>\n Rivas had seen posts about ICE officers sweeping through LA and figured Downey\u2019s turn had come. She and her co-worker rushed toward the sound of screaming at a nearby intersection. Rivas hit \u201crecord\u201d on her phone as a semicircle of trucks and vans came into view. She filmed at least half a dozen masked men in camouflage vests encircling a Hispanic man on his knees.<\/p>\n Her unease deepened as she registered details that \u201cdidn\u2019t seem right,\u201d Rivas recalled in an interview. She said the parked vans had out-of-state plates or no tags. The armed men wore only generic \u201cpolice\u201d patches, and most were in street clothes. No visible insignia identified them as state or federal \u2014 or even legal authorities at all.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen is it that we just decided to do things a different way? There\u2019s due process, there\u2019s a legal way, and it just doesn\u2019t seem to matter anymore,\u201d Rivas said. \u201cWhere are human rights?\u201d<\/p>\n \n \u201cWe\u2019ll Smash the Fucking Window Out and Drag Him Out\u201d<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n Video footage shows Rivas and others berating the officers for complicity in what they called a \u201ckidnapping.\u201d Local news channels later reported that the vehicles had chased the man after a raid at a nearby car wash.<\/p>\n \u201cI know half of you guys know this is fucked up,\u201d Rivas was recorded telling the officers.<\/p>\n Moments later, the scene took a turn. As suddenly as they\u2019d arrived, the officers returned to their vehicles and left, with no apology and no explanation to the distraught man they left on the sidewalk.<\/p>\n Through a mask, one of them said, \u201cHave a good day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they\u2019re published. Reporting Highlights Aggression: Under President Donald Trump\u2019s deportation mission, ICE officers are using force to detain and jail immigrants. Impunity: The administration gutted guardrails and offices meant to rein in abusive actions. Disappeared:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[1069,319,2628,1551,247,17119,81,4227],"class_list":{"0":"post-28892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-social-issues","8":"tag-building","9":"tag-federal","10":"tag-force","11":"tag-police","12":"tag-propublica","13":"tag-shadowy","14":"tag-trump","15":"tag-violent"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n Credit: <\/span>
\n Leonard Ortiz\/MediaNews Group\/Orange County Register\/Getty Images
\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n Credit: <\/span>
\n Charly Triballeau, Michael M. Santiago and Dominic Gwinn\/Middle East Images via AFP\/Getty Images
\n <\/span><\/p>\n\u201cAuthoritarian Playbook\u201d<\/h3>\n
\n Credit: <\/span>
\n Victor J. Blue\/The New York Times\/Redux
\n <\/span><\/p>\nWhere the Fallout is Felt<\/h3>\n
\n Credit: <\/span>
\n Christopher Dilts\/Bloomberg\/Getty Images
\n <\/span><\/p>\nIn Plain Sight<\/h3>\n