ICE Violence Is Up Under Trump, and DHS Has Known for Nearly a Year

President Trump has sent thousands of ICE officers into American cities in the past year, where they have assaulted, detained, and killed protesters and suspected undocumented immigrants. We obtained internal DHS emails that show the agency knew ICE officers were using more force, more often in the months after Trump returned to office — but instead of reining them in, officials appeared focused on prosecuting protesters.

The documents, first reported on this week by Politico, include ICE training materials advising officers on when and how they are allowed to use force, and on peoples’ rights not to be detained without warrants and/or cause. The training told agents they could use “necessary and reasonable” force against “disruptive protesters” to make an arrest, but that they must first attempt to defuse the situation. 

But reports of violence by ICE officers contain instances of agents shattering car windows, deploying chemical agents, and using extreme physical force to detain individuals. In the first two months of Trump’s second administration, the documents show a 353 percent increase in use of force. The official tasked with overseeing ICE field operations was informed on March 20 that officers’ use of force was up nearly four-fold compared to the year before.

DHS was aware of the increased rate of violence. However, there did not seem to be interest in accountability. Officials discussed ways to increase prosecutions for any reports of violence towards ICE officers, but they did not make similar comments addressing the use of force by ICE officers.

The documents suggest “ICE knows its practices are deeply problematic — and is deliberately hiding the ball to avoid public scrutiny,” our Executive Director Chioma Chukwu told Politico. 

Learn more about what we learned from the records.

Destruction of Jack Smith Report Would Violate Federal Law

Trump and his co-conspirators are escalating their legal efforts to convince Judge Aileen Cannon to permanently bar the release of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report on Trump’s handling of classified documents — and even to destroy it. 

We’re fighting back.

This week, we sent a demand letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and top officials at the National Archives and Records Administration warning them that destroying the report would violate the Federal Records Act. 

Earlier this month, we appealed a ruling by Judge Cannon that barred us from participating in the criminal case to argue for the full release of the report. We also filed a motion, in partnership with the Knight First Amendment Institute, seeking to pause all rulings in the case while our appeal is pending.

We won’t let Trump bury crucial information about how he endangered national security. 

American Oversight in the news

• ICE officials knew use of force was rising well before Minneapolis shootings (Politico)
• Six deaths in six weeks: What to know about ICE detentions in Texas (Texas Tribune)
• Report: ICE officials ignored clear warning signs before killings (The New Republic)
• ‘Enough is enough’: Trump downplays demand for ‘destruction’ of Jack Smith’s Mar-a-Lago report while alerting Cannon to appeal that could stop her (Law & Crime)
• ‘My dream job has turned into a nightmare’: Ex-feds and public service experts testify to Congress on how to rebuild government post-Trump (Government Executive)

Other stories we’re following

• The Justice Department is not acting like it used to, criminal defense lawyers note (NPR)
• Trump pushes voter ID ‘whether approved by Congress or not!’ (Politico)
• ‘No expense has been spared’: Inside a luxury jet DHS wants to buy for deportations (NBC News)
• Noem boasts of Trump administration ensuring ‘we have the right people voting’ ahead of midterms (The Hill)
• Noem’s use of Coast Guard resources strains her relationship with the military branch, sources say (NBC News)