Oct. 2025, DHS (Department of Homeland Security) Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino intensified immigration enforcement, and encouraged agents to “go hard” against protestors and undocumented immigrants. These actions led to controversial arrests, use of force, such as pepper balls, rubber bullets, noise suppressors, pepper spray, military-grade weapons, and tactical gear.
These harmful tactics have only continued to fail U.S. residents, as it has only led to the murders, physical and emotional damages on innocent citizens, military veterans, and locals who have devoted their lives to embracing the “American Dream.”
On June 8, 2025 49-year-old protester Atlachinolli Tezcacoatl was shot multiple times in his face with a foam projectile during an acti-ICE protest, leading to a shattered jaw.
October 4, 2025, 84-year-old Vietnam veteran Richard Eckman and his wife, Laurie Eckman were knocked to the ground by federal agents during a protest outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs building in South Portland. Eckman, who uses a walker, had been shoved by officers, while his wife sustained a concussion after being hit by a projectile and sprayed with a chemical agent.
Jan. 9, 2026 21-year old college student Kaden Rummler was hit in the face with a projectile that is believed to be a capsule containing pepper spray or a kinetic impact round. It had been fired by a federal officer during a protest, leaving Rummler permanently blind in his left eye.
On Jan. 14, 2026 a Minneapolis family including six children and a 6-month-old infant were tear-gassed by ICE agents. The family remained trapped in their SUV between protestors and federal agents during a protest on their way home from their son’s basketball game.
Tezcacoatl, Rummler, Eckman, and the Jackson family are few of the hundreds of victims that have wrongly faced abuse from ICE and federal agents. Other victims such as Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and Liam Conejo Ramos have also faced unimaginable brutalities that were at the hands of the corrupt government we are currently under.
On Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, when 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen and mother of three, was fatally shot by an ICE agent during a large enforcement operation.
Good was driving her SUV on a Minneapolis street near where ICE agents were operating as part of an expanded federal immigration enforcement effort when ICE agent Jonathan Ross fired three shots that struck her and killed her. During the shooting Good’s vehicle was positioned sideways in the street and then began to move forward and turn. Federal officials later claimed that Good had attempted to “weaponize her vehicle” and struck the agent.
Good’s tragic death was ruled out to be a homicide by Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s later, saying she was killed by multiple gunshot wounds. Her passing became the start of new growing tensions all over the country and efforts to stop the murder of innocent people.
Seventeen days later, Jan. 24, 2026, at about 9 a.m. central time in Minneapolis, 37-year-old NICU nurse Alex Pretti was shot and killed by ICE agents. Pretti was shot at least 10 times in a span of five seconds after jumping in to protect a woman from being assaulted by ICE agents.
According to witnesses and video evidence, a man believed to be Pretti was facing at least one federal office, but it was unclear if they were speaking to each other. An agent then is seen pushing a woman to the ground to which Pretti then moves towards the agent to protect the woman from being further assaulted. The agent then grabs Pretti and pepper sprays him, as Pretti appears to attempt to help the woman to her feet.
Agents then separate Pretti from the woman and wrestle him to the ground, leading to an agent yelling “he’s got a gun,” as another agent reaches into his waistband to retrieve said gun. As an agent with Pretti’s gun walks away a shot rings out, followed by at least nine other times.
Pretti’s death was—like Good’s—ruled out to be a homicide, and according to the DHS in a post on X (formerly twitter) the agents had a targeted operations against an undocumented immigrants stating they were “wanted for assault” when Alex Pretti, “approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun.” Pretti had a valid, legal permit and was lawfully allowed to carry a concealed firearm in Minnesota.
Ironically, Trump’s administration only targets “violent criminals” yet recently detained a five-year-old boy, Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Ramos on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026.
Originally from Ecuador, Ramos and his family followed all established protocols, pursuing their claim for asylum in Texas in December 2024. Ramos and his father had just arrived home after school, when ICE detained him and his father in their driveway.
Ramos was then essentially used as bait, as he was directed to knock on the door, asking to be let in, in attempts to get his pregnant mother outside of their home, she continuously refused as her husband and neighbors advised her not to do it as she would likely be detained as well.
It was twenty minutes later after Ramos and his father were taken, that the teen brother came home to a missing father and little brother. Mary Granlund, the school board chair at Columbia Heights Public Schools was a witness at the scene, and attempted to gain custody of Ramos in hopes of saving him from being taken with agents.
Allegedly, authorities claimed they comforted Liam by “buying him McDonalds” but this did nothing to diminish the trauma and the cruelty his family endured.
After being shipped off to a Texas detention facility with his father, Ramos was left in poor health, with a high fever in response to the conditions in the facility detainees are being kept in. Detainees are receiving if not spoiled or moldy then low quality food, with little to no clean water.
Ramos had frequent stomach pain—making him no longer want to eat—vomiting, and a fever. It wasn’t until Feb. 1, nearly two weeks after being detained by immigration authorities Ramos and his father were released from custody, and returned to Minneapolis after a federal judge ordered they be released pending their asylum cases.
Since the release, Ramos reportedly continues to wake up crying during the night, with fears of being detained and separated from his family once again.
Ramos is the fourth student from the Columbia Heights Public Schools to be detained and taken into custody. Another 17-year-old high school student was taken into custody by armed and masked agents while he was alone. The student was then removed from their car and taken away.
10-year-old Elizabeth Zina and her mother were on their way to her school bus stop on Jan. 6, 2026 and were intercepted by federal agents. Zina was able to call her father during the arrests, and acted as an interpreter for her family, telling her father that officers would drop her off at school.
Her father rushed to the elementary school and waited for hours, but Zina never arrived. By the end of the day they had already been flown out to Texas. Zina and her mother were held at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, one of the largest immigration detention centers for families in the United States.
After a month of being in the detention center, Zina and her mother were released from custody on Feb. 5, 2026. Zina was one of hundreds of children in custody at Dilley, which is now the site of a measles outbreak.
During her time at Dilley, Principal secretary at Highland elementary, Zina’s school, had been assisting the family. Since her release, she has been experiencing flu-like symptoms and her mother had broken out in hives.
It is unsettling and senseless to think of the countless amount of children that are currently still in custody, facing unspeakable treatment. There are hundreds of children being taken into custody daily, with numbers ranging from 170 to 400 per day who are being taken into custody alongside their parents.
The detention of minors is subject to the 1997 Flores Settlement agreement, which prohibits the long-term detention of children and requires a release within 20 days. Despite ongoing litigation and efforts from the Trump administration to terminate it, it is still the primarily legal standard, meaning several administrations are yet to be held accountable for violating this limit.
Behind every case is a person who trusted they would be protected in custody and instead faced harm or neglect. These cases are not isolated incidents, but part of a broader pattern that raises urgent questions about accountability within ICE. They highlight how ICE’s practices have repeatedly put vulnerable people at risk, and underscore the real human cost of detention and enforcement policies.
