We need to talk about ICE, more specifically, what ICE has been up to recently. In case you don’t know or have not heard of ICE, it stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Their main goal is to arrest anyone who is not in the country legally and deport them back to their country of origin. But when the Trump administration took office, they made some extreme changes. Recently, ICE has been acting extremely aggressively, wearing masks covering their faces, using unmarked vans, and not wearing anything that tells people they are ICE. There was an incident in California where a woman named Andrea Velez was walking to work when suddenly, ICE came in unmarked vans, grabbed her, slammed her to the ground, and threw her in an unmarked van. Even though she told them she was a citizen, she still spent 2 nights in jail before being released. This is extremely concerning since it looked like she was being kidnapped, and people genuinely couldn’t tell a difference, especially because they had no warrant and no reason. The worst part is: the woman was a citizen, yet they simply didn’t care.
Another incident that occurred also took place in California; A woman named Rosalina Luna Vargas was detained by plainclothed ICE agents whilst walking with her 2 kids. The agents “allegedly” did not show a warrant, at least initially. A family member after the incident said that the warrant was for a different person, and ICE agents said Rosalina Luna Vargas was “in the wrong place at the wrong time.” The woman was then put into custody after ICE agents allegedly returned with a warrant.
Another incident occurred in December 2025. A mother of 6 was arrested and jailed for multiple days. She was arrested at an ICE traffic stop in Benton County, Arkansas. Despite her showing proof of legal status, ICE did not care or even search her up in the system; rather, they arrested her, and she was released without any explanation of why.
Another much more extreme incident that happened in Northwest Chicago occurred when ICE agents reportedly waited for a 15-year-old girl to come home. When she did get home, she was dragged from the car and slammed to the ground while she screamed. All while a man twice, maybe even three times her size, kneeled on her neck pinning her to the ground. Neighbors report that the girl was born and raised in the largely Hispanic town.
The final incident that will be mentioned is most likely the most famous one. Brad Lander was detained in June 2025. Lander was attempting to intervene when ICE was arresting someone without a warrant at a courthouse. He was later released just a few hours later; the charges they wanted to charge him with were assaulting an officer of the law and impeding a federal officer. Lander denies the accusations, saying he only linked arms with the officer while asking the ICE officer for the warrant. The charges were later dropped.
In conclusion, this is all extremely disgusting. ICE is acting without provocation and responding with aggression. It should be clear that the people don’t like them, especially with all the protests happening over ICE. ICE has been reminding me of the S.S or Gestapo since they are literally doing what they did, ICE is arresting without warrants, sending people off to camps without trial, or deporting without trial. They just don’t care if you’re a citizen or not. God forbid you upset them, since, apparently, they will arrest or detain you, as shown in the Brad Lander incident. I truly find this disgusting and concerning since they already don’t need warrants and most of the time refuse to be videotaped, even taking or breaking phones in some cases, which is unconstitutional. They also wear masks, which is also unconstitutional, since public officials can’t hide or cover their faces; this includes police officers. If they can do all this, where will it stop? They will just keep taking things until they control everything and rule with an iron fist!
