'Reign of Terror': ICE Builds Appalling Record of Killings, Beatings, Kidnappings, and More

Federal immigration enforcement agents, unleashed and emboldened by President Donald Trump, have been rampaging through the streets of cities across the United States for months, racking up an appalling record of abuses and alleged crimes, including kidnapping, beatings, and murder.

Such abuses have targeted, but haven't been limited to, undocumented immigrants. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent's killing of Renee Good, a 37-year-old American citizen and mother of three, earlier this week called greater attention to the agency's lawless behavior, enabled by an administration whose number-two official—Vice President JD Vance—falsely insists that federal immigration officers have "absolute immunity" from prosecution.

"Out of control" were the words lawmakers, advocacy groups, experts, and community members used to describe ICE's conduct in the wake of Good's killing.

Just 24 hours later, Border Patrol agents shot and wounded two people in Portland, Oregon, heightening nationwide outrage over the Trump administration's onslaught against undocumented immigrants, US citizens, and those protesting the presence of ICE agents, who are often masked and dressed in military fatigues.

Seemingly, nowhere is safe; ICE has raided houses of worship, schools, hotels, restaurants, farms, and retail stores.

"Communities across the state have been terrorized by masked, armed agents who are indiscriminately and aggressively harassing and kidnapping individuals at school, at work, on the streets, and in their homes," the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota said Thursday.

US Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) wrote on social media following the shootings in Portland on Thursday that "ICE has done nothing to keep our communities safer."

"ICE agents are terrorizing folks in Oregon and across the country," he added. "I’m demanding full accountability—an investigation that involves Oregon officials—and ICE to immediately end these dangerous operations in Oregon."

Others have echoed Merkley's demand that ICE immediately exit cities across the US amid mounting abuses, documented by local and national media outlets, watchdog organizations, and eyewitnesses in the months since Trump launched his mass deportation push.

"Get the fuck out," was Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey's message to ICE following the killing of Good on Wednesday.

The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization, stressed that Good's killing at the hands of Jonathan Ross—a federal agent with more than a decade of experience at ICE—was not the first time that federal officers have killed civilians since the Trump administration launched its aggressive immigration enforcement campaign.

"Federal officers have fatally shot at least three other people in the last five months," The Marshall Project noted. "In September, Silverio Villegas González, a father originally from Mexico who worked as a cook, was killed while reportedly trying to flee from officers in a Chicago suburb, WBEZ reported. In December, a border patrol agent killed a 31-year-old Mexican citizen while trying to detain him in Rio Grande City, Texas."

The organization went on to observe that "federal officers have fired on at least nine people while they were in their vehicles" and repeatedly threatened others with deadly force.

"A pregnant Illinois woman told Newsweek she thought her life was about to end when a federal agent pointed his gun through her car window, after she honked her horn to alert people ICE was nearby," The Marshall Project reported. "In another incident in Chicago, a combat veteran alleged in a court filing that a federal officer said 'bang, bang' and 'you're dead, liberal' while pointing a handgun at him."

The list of abuses, both alleged and captured in real time, is seemingly endless. As the investigative outlet ProPublica reported late last year:

Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased, and shot by immigration agents. They’ve had their necks kneeled on. They’ve been held outside in the rain while in their underwear. At least three citizens were pregnant when agents detained them. One of those women had already had the door of her home blown off while Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem watched.

Immigrants detained by ICE have accused agents of horrific abuse, including sexual assault. One teenager held at Fort Bliss, the largest immigration detention center in the US, alleged that an officer broke his tooth and "crushed" his testicles while another "forced his fingers deep into my ears," causing lasting damage.

Those who have turned out in the streets to protest ICE's activities in their neighborhoods—and those who have tried to stop agent abuses—have also been subject to attacks, including tear gas to the face.

On the same day as Good's killing, ICE conducted a raid at a nearby Minneapolis high school. One local resident who witnessed the raid said she saw "one teacher get tackled" as educators and other school employees tried to keep the agents away from students.

The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers accused federal agents of using tear gas—which ICE has deployed frequently in recent months.

The Washington Post reported in November that federal immigration officers "have thrown chemical agents out of vehicles on city streets, creating a hazard for motorists."

"They have thrown tear-gas canisters near stores and schools, exposing children, pregnant women, and older people to the noxious gas," the newspaper added. "And on numerous occasions federal officers have fired pepper balls directly at protesters—in one case, striking a pastor in the head."

In response to ICE's horrific behavior, lawmakers at the federal level have taken steps aimed at constraining an agency whose budget is now larger than that of a dozen nations' militaries.

US Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) is introducing articles of impeachment against Noem, accusing her of setting loose ICE's "reign of terror."

Axios reported Thursday that US Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) "will propose sweeping reforms" to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), "including requiring a warrant for arrests, banning masks during enforcement operations, and requiring Border Patrol to remain at the border."

Murphy is "also trying to build a coalition of Democrats to insist on some restraints on DHS' authority as a condition of their support for a spending bill for the department—with funding set to lapse January 30," the outlet reported.

US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who has previously called for the abolition of ICE, warned that the agency is currently "accountable to no one."

"It's a nightmare," Ocasio-Cortez told reporters on the steps of the US Capitol on Wednesday. "They are operating with impunity. We just saw them murder an American citizen in cold blood, in the street."

"This is an agency that must be reined in," she added.