Ramming cars, sledgehammering windows and raiding churches in pursuit of migrants appears to be the new norm for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Trump’s America.
Democratic lawmakers have questioned “the appropriateness, proportionality, and execution of ICE tactics,” while immigration attorneys say the agency’s approach has escalated after a series of high-profile incidents over recent weeks.
“When ICE was first active in 2003, it was supposed to protect Americans and people living within the United States,” immigration attorney Michael Cataliotti told The Independent. “Not any more. These days, ICE is a tool being used to scare, arrest, detain, and fill up the prison systems under the guise of ‘Protecting America.’”
Cataliotti said that under previous administrations, ICE had more “humanity” compared to now. “This is astonishingly different,” the New York-based attorney said. “It’s a tremendous violation of norms, like going into churches, which were always considered off-limits, or, simply, assault and battery and reckless endangerment, when they’re driving cars into folks.”
Six months in President Donald Trump’s second term, tensions around immigration are at an all-time high.
In Los Angeles, protests broke out last weekend against ICE operations in the city and Trump responded by deploying the military. Elsewhere, other anti-ICE demonstrations ignited across the country, with more planned for Saturday.
Stephen Miller is said to be the driving force behind the aggressive push. Trump’s far-right architect of anti-immigration policy reportedly rallied ICE officials to “just go out there and arrest illegal aliens,” and target buildings like Home Depots as opposed to developing a list of targets.
The Independent has contacted ICE and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
ICE agents rammed car ‘with baby and toddler in the backseat’
The Department of Homeland Security bragged about ramming the car of Christian Damian Cerno-Camacho in a “targeted arrest” this week.
“This was no hit and run. This was a targeted arrest of a violent rioter who punched a CBP officer,” the department said of Wednesday’s incident in LA in a post on X.
Two unmarked vehicles sandwiched Cerno-Camacho’s car on Whitter Boulevard after DHS claimed he attempted to flee the scene. According to ABC7, a baby, toddler and a woman were also in the vehicle at the time of the collision.
Agents drew their weapons and dragged Cerno-Camacho out of the vehicle, witnesses told the outlet.
“They just took him out using force and everything, pulling out guns while kids are in the car. That’s not right,” Jesus Trujillo, the man’s family member, told ABC7.
Homeland Security claimed in the social media post that its officers “are facing a 413 percent increase in assaults against them as they put their lives on the line to arrest murders, rapists, and gang members.”
Man’s car window sledgehammered by agents on his way to dentist appointment
Juan Francisco Mendez was on his way to a dentist appointment in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in April when ICE agents swooped and smashed his car window in with a hammer.
“I’ve been doing immigration work for 27 years and this was the first time that I saw such violent drastic measures being taken,” his lawyer Ondine Galvez-Sniffin said.
Mendez had applied for asylum, according to his lawyers. He was being held at Sattford County Corrections in Dover, New Hampshire, but was released in May on bond.
Agents reportedly told the lawyer they were looking for another man with a different name who lived in the same neighborhood before they dragged him and his wife out of the car.
He has no criminal record, and the government held him for weeks without initiating deportation proceedings against him, leading to his case being dismissed by an immigration judge on May 8. After that hearing, the U.S. government charged Mendez with being in the country illegally before a judge ordered his release on a minimum bond.
Church raids
A pastor in the LA suburb of Downey claimed that a federal agent pointed a rifle at her during a confrontation on church property this week.
Agents in unmarked vehicles showed up at Downey Memorial Christian Church Wednesday to detain a Latino man who was sitting on a bench.
Senior Pastor Tanya Lopez said that she tried to move closer to the man who was detained to advise him of his rights. “I decided to keep going closer to the vehicle so that the man could hear me say, ‘Don’t answer any questions. Do not sign anything,’” Lopez told Fox11. “They did point their rifle at me and they said, ‘You need to get back. You need to get back.’”
ICE agents raided several businesses in Downey earlier that day, according to Downey City Council member Mario Trujillo. “These raids at Home Depots, restaurants, places of worship or schools are not keeping our community safe,” Trujillo said at a news conference. “They are creating havoc and fear.”
Agents ‘pursued worker through crop fields’
Federal agents pursued a produce worker through a field of crops in Oxnard, Ventura County, California this week, sparking fear among the community.
A flower vendor shared a brief clip of the moment on social media. The agents, who are not confirmed ICE officers, chased the man before he fell to the ground, KLTA5 reports.
The incident was reportedly part of a string of operations in the area. Oxnard Mayor Luis McArthur said the actions were “completely unjustified and harmful” in a video. “They create chaos and distress in our community without contributing much to public safety,” McArthur said.
Reports that immigration officials are now targeting food and produce workers have concerned the industry. Immigration authorities in Omaha, Nebraska raided a meat production plant Tuesday and took workers away in buses, according to Politico.
Chad Hartmann, president of Glenn Valley Foods, said that the agents raided the plant because the federal database ICE uses to check the immigration status of employees “is broken.”
“I mean, what am I supposed to do with that?” Hartmann told Politico. “This is your system, run by the government. And you’re raiding me because your system is broken?”
Trump appeared to acknowledge the concern in a post on Truth Social Thursday. “Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,” he said, before blaming the Biden administration.
“In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!”
The Associated Press contributed reporting