In the last year, a series of stories about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have gone viral: a pregnant woman forced to labor under a non-removable tracking watch; a U.S. citizen of Somali origin tackled and choked on a Minneapolis sidewalk; an ICE supervisor jailed for alleged domestic violence; and a massive new deportation air fleet funded as part of President Trump’s second-term crackdown.
Taken together, these incidents paint a picture not just of individual misconduct, but of a system with enormous power, record funding, and weak accountability—and one that increasingly affects both non-citizens and U.S. citizens.
A Rapidly Expanding, Heavily Funded System
Congress has approved unprecedented money for immigration enforcement. Recent budget deals direct tens of billions of dollars to ICE alone: roughly $74.8 billion over several years, including $45 billion for detention capacity and nearly $30 billion for operational and procurement costs.
Within that pot, DHS recently confirmed a $140 million purchase of six Boeing 737s to be used exclusively for deportation flights, a move framed as a “cost-effective” way to support the administration’s goal of deporting 1 million people in a single year. ( Less than 1% of the U.S population)
Alongside detention and flights, the government is pouring money into surveillance. BI Incorporated, a subsidiary of private prison giant GEO Group, runs ICE’s Alternative to Detention (ATD) program, which tracks immigrants via ankle monitors, facial recognition apps, and now non-removable “VeriWatch” smartwatches. New contracts and expansions could allow BI to monitor hundreds of thousands of people at once, with each participant generating about $3.70 per day in revenue—hundreds of millions of dollars a year in potential profit.
Critics describe this as a “Deportation-Industrial Complex”: a web of public money and private profit that creates structural incentives to arrest, detain, and track as many people as possible.
Surveillance Devices That Interfere With Medical Care
One Guardian investigation detailed how pregnant immigrants in Colorado arrived at emergency rooms wearing ICE-mandated VeriWatch devices that cannot be removed except by ICE or its contractor. In C-sections and other emergencies, medical staff must normally remove all metal and electronics for safety, but hospital workers reported confusion, delays, and patients terrified to cut the watch off—even when their life or their baby’s health might depend on it.
The same investigation described a Bangladeshi asylum seeker who sought to move his ankle monitor because of nerve damage; instead of accommodating a medical note, ICE arrested and detained him at his next check-in. Former DHS officials told reporters that ATD rules were highly discretionary and largely designed around contractor needs, not human rights standards.
Violence, Wrongful Arrests, and Patterned Misconduct
Individual cases now surfacing fit into a broader pattern documented by watchdogs:
- In Minneapolis, ICE agents tackled a Somali-American U.S. citizen, Mubashir, during his lunch break, dragged him from a restaurant, put him in a chokehold in the snow, and detained him for about two hours despite his repeated offers to show ID. City leaders called the arrest blatantly unconstitutional and rooted in racial profiling.
- A Cincinnati-area ICE assistant special agent in charge has been indicted on state charges of felonious assault and strangulation after an alleged domestic violence incident, with police noting they had been called to the address more than 20 times in 18 months. (Local reporting; case ongoing.)
- A recent congressional investigation found that immigration agents have repeatedly detained and mistreated U.S. citizens, contradicting longstanding claims that “we don’t arrest citizens.”
- DHS’s own Office of Inspector General (OIG) has repeatedly documented violations of detention standards, including unsafe conditions, misuse of segregation, and poor medical care at facilities in Texas, Louisiana, and elsewhere.
- An ACLU review of deaths in immigrant detention found dozens of preventable deaths linked to delayed or substandard medical care from 2017–2021.
When excessive force, wrongful detention, or deaths occur, ICE’s internal oversight systems often impose few real consequences on facilities or officers, according to policy analyses by the National Immigrant Justice Center and others.
Why Are Agents Acting Violently?
Most agents do not appear in headlines. But several factors can help explain why abuses keep surfacing:
- Political Rhetoric and Mission Framing
Repeated descriptions of immigrants as “criminal illegal aliens” and policy goals framed as mass deportation at scale can foster a warrior mentality rather than a public-service ethos, especially when leadership publicly celebrates aggressive enforcement. - Financial Incentives
Private contractors profit when more people are detained or monitored; budgets grow with higher arrest and deportation numbers. This can reinforce a culture in which volume is valorized and restraint is not. - Weak Oversight and Low Risk of Discipline
OIG reports and advocacy investigations repeatedly note that failing facilities rarely lose contracts and that individual misconduct often results in minimal accountability. In that environment, some officers may feel effectively shielded from consequences. - Recruitment and Stress
ICE has been authorized to hire thousands of new officers rapidly, which can strain training pipelines and screening for temperament, bias, or prior misconduct. High-stress field conditions without strong supervision can further increase the risk of overreaction and violence.
What If Agents Were Truly Held Accountable?
If ICE officers and contractors faced consistent, meaningful consequences for unlawful arrests, excessive force, or rights violations, several changes could follow:
- A likely decline in racial profiling and “stop first, verify later” practices, as seen in other law-enforcement agencies after consent decrees or strong civilian oversight.
- More rigorous training and psychological screening, with problematic officers removed earlier.
- Greater caution in using surveillance technologies that interfere with medical care or basic dignity, such as non-removable devices on pregnant women.
- Potentially reduced wrongful detentions of U.S. citizens and fewer preventable injuries or deaths in custody.
But meaningful accountability would require structural changes: independent review bodies with real power, transparent public reporting, and financial penalties or contract loss for abusive facilities and contractors.
What Can Citizens Do to Protect Themselves and Push for Accountability?
1. Know Your Rights (for Citizens and Non-Citizens Alike)
- You generally have the right to remain silent and to ask, “Am I free to leave?”
- You can ask officers to identify themselves and request to see any warrant, and in many situations you do not have to consent to searches.
- Non-citizens should, when possible, keep copies of key documents (work permits, green cards, naturalization certificates) and contact details for an attorney or legal aid.
(For specific situations, rights guides from groups like the ACLU or local legal nonprofits are useful; they tailor advice to state and context.)
2. Document Encounters
Where legal in your state, recording ICE encounters in public places can provide crucial evidence in cases of excessive force or racial profiling and can support later legal or oversight action.
3. Support Independent Oversight and Transparency
- Press local, state, and federal representatives to back stronger inspections, public reporting, and independent investigations of ICE and its contractors.
- Advocate for laws that require public release of detention deaths, use-of-force incidents, and wrongful detention cases.
4. Back Legal and Advocacy Organizations
Groups that litigate abuses, file FOIA requests, and support impacted families are often the ones who bring misconduct to light and force reforms.
5. Engage Locally
Cities and counties sometimes choose whether and how to cooperate with ICE. Public input at council meetings or through local coalitions can influence whether your community adopts policies that limit participation in raids or use local resources to support mass enforcement.
References & Further Reading
The Guardian – DHS buys Boeing 737s for deportation flights
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/10/us-signs-boeing-trump-deportation-deal
The Guardian – ICE smartwatches and pregnancy care under ATD
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/
CBS Minnesota – Minneapolis leaders say U.S. citizen was wrongfully arrested by ICE
https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/minneapolis-leaders-say-us-citizen-was-wrongfully-arrested-by-ice-agents/
ProPublica – Immigration agents have detained and mistreated U.S. citizens
https://www.propublica.org/
DHS OIG – Violations of ICE detention standards (Port Isabel, Richwood, others)
https://www.oig.dhs.gov/
ACLU – Deadly Failures: Preventable deaths in U.S. immigrant detention
https://www.aclu.org/publications/deadly-failures-preventable-deaths-in-us-immigrant-detention
Brennan Center – The “deportation-industrial complex” and new enforcement budgets
https://www.brennancenter.org/
GEO Group / BI Inc contracts and ATD expansion reporting
https://investors.geogroup.com/
https://www.latintimes.com/
https://gizmodo.com/
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