Standing Witness to ICE’s Cruelty Is Peaceful Protesting Done Right

Throughout 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been abducting people across the United States. This includes people like Rümeysa Öztürk who was arrested by six plainclothes officers as she left her home. It includes Frank Miranda, a US citizen, who was detained by plainclothes officers outside his Portland workplace and detained for hours. It includes Patricia Quishpe who was arrested by Border Patrol agents as part of the Trump administration’s Operation Midway Blitz.

These abductions are being fueled by multiple factors, including the Trump administration’s disregard for due process, their indifference to the safety of people of color, as well as ICE’s hired private sector bounty hunters. To date, ICE has hired 10 contractors with ties to spy agencies and the military-industrial complex to track and surveil suspected migrants. They have also partnered with private prison companies like Geo Group and CoreCivic. Currently, nearly 90% of all people in ICE custody are held in for-profit facilities. These multimillion-dollar contracts have been made possible by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act which allocated $170 billion to ICE for border and interior enforcement.

These partnerships and resources have allowed ICE to effectively create a secret police force that kidnaps people off the street, detains them in private prisons, and prevents lawmakers from exercising any oversight. ICE has become the Gestapo.

While this threat is real and growing, people are resisting ICE’s fascist tactics. This includes the work being done by groups like “Witness at the Border,” an advocacy group that has been monitoring and reporting ICE activities since 2018. Their work includes talking to people coming in and out of detention centers, tracking buses and flights carrying detainees, as well as traveling to the US-Mexico border to witness the dire conditions migrants face there. They have held in-person and online seminars to inform the public about what they have seen and learned, as well as lobbied state legislatures and Congress to hold ICE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accountable for their abuses.

We cannot trust the Trump administration to be transparent with the American public. If DHS is becoming a secret police force, then it is up to us to bring their abuses to light. We must all bear witness to their cruelty.

These “witnesses” provide civilian oversight over ICE abuses. As Lee Goodman, one of the activists describes it: “Our process basically is to do what we can to see, to listen, to hear, to talk to people who know and to get the word. We don’t want [ICE] to ever think they can do what they want without being observed.” Goodman has been part of witnessing efforts at detention centers in Tornillo, Texas and Homestead, Florida—both of which have since shut down.

Advocates for Witness at the Border are currently witnessing outside several detention centers, including the North Lake Processing Center in Michigan and the Broadview ICE Facility in Illinois. These efforts are incredibly important. From the start of Trump’s mass deportation campaign, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has worked to restrict congressional oversight. State representatives in Illinois, for instance, had been denied entry into the Broadview facility for months until a federal judge intervened in mid-December. This, despite numerous allegations of human rights abuses occurring at the Broadview ICE Facility, including denying detainees food and medical care as well as forcing them to sleep on concrete floors amid “urine and dirty water.”

We cannot trust the Trump administration to be transparent with the American public. If DHS is becoming a secret police force, then it is up to us to bring their abuses to light. We must all bear witness to their cruelty.

Fortunately, many are seeing the value of witnessing as a form of peaceful protest. Individuals, like Job Garcia and Carlitos Ricardo Parias, have recorded ICE’s cruelty and shared those videos on social media. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta have announced a new online portal to share information about unlawful activity by federal agents and officers across the state. As Gov. Newson puts it: “This new portal gives Californians an easy and safe way to speak up, share what they see, and help us hold people accountable. No one is above the law.”

DHS wants nothing more than to commit their illicit activities unseen. They fear witnesses and will resort to violence to stop them.

Beyond drawing attention to the problem, witnessing has several praiseworthy features.

First, and perhaps most obviously, witnesses document abuse. This is not only important for calling out ICE’s actions today, but for holding the people committing these abuses—including Secretary Noem and members of the Trump administration—criminally accountable in the future. When their day in court comes, we must ensure that the evidence against them is resounding. We must bear witness today to ensure justice tomorrow.

Second, witnesses empower and protect victims. DHS continues to deny any wrongdoing. Secretary Noem has even insisted, despite abundant evidence to the contrary, that, “there’s no American citizens that have been arrested or detained.” Yet, videos of ICE agents doing precisely this prove that she is lying. These videos validate the experiences of US citizens who have been assaulted by ICE agents. It provides them the leverage to speak out against an administration that wants nothing more than to discredit and silence them.

Third, witnessing provides a fuller picture. From the outside, it’s easy to think that everyone working at ICE facilities is simply evil or, at best, morally indifference. However, Majorie Ziefert, an activist working with Witness at the Border, reports that the reality on the ground is quite different. She has spoken with staff at processing centers who express hating what is happening to detainees at those facilities. They only continue to work there because they need the income. While we may still condemn those people for their part in ICE’s cruelty, witnessing draws attention to how capitalism pressures people to contribute to unjust systems. At the same time, it helps bridge inroads that may lead to unlikely alliances.

Fourth, to witness is to take a risk. ICE agents have attacked and detained people like Barbara Stone, a volunteer with the group Detention Resistance that observes and documents immigration court proceedings. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin has claimed that “videotaping ICE law enforcement and posting photos and videos of them online is doxing our agents. We will prosecute those who illegally harass ICE agents to the fullest extent of the law.” This response by DHS highlights the value of witnessing as a form of protest. DHS wants nothing more than to commit their illicit activities unseen. They fear witnesses and will resort to violence to stop them.

Witnessing is risky, but facing this risk may help us cultivate the kinds of virtues—courage, selflessness, justice, perseverance, and empathy—that make people into good activists. The reality is that the Trump administration is far from over. The situation will likely get far worse, especially as DHS invests in more invasive surveillance technologies. We will all need to become more resilient to combat what comes next.

Fifth, like any form of protest, witnessing will be more impactful when done alongside others. But whether it’s at a detention center or on the street, whether it’s a testimony or recording a video, anyone can be a witness.

In 2025, the Trump administration deported more than 600,000 people while stripping 1.6 million immigrants of their legal status. In 2026, they seek to expand their efforts by denaturalizing 100 to 200 people per month. If we want to preserve our democracy, then none of us has the luxury of averting our eyes to the Trump administration’s injustices. No matter how grueling it may be, we must grit our teeth, bear witness, and fight.