Trump's Government Is Lying About ICE: What You Need to Know
Many Americans have had enough. Here's how they're pushing back.
ICE Assaults and Falsehoods from the Federal Government
Since Trump took office on Jan. 20 of last year, immigration enforcement agents have shot 19 people, and killed at least seven of them. 2025 is tied for the deadliest year for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since its founding in 2003, with 32 people dying in the agency’s custody. By Dec. 17, over 3,800 children under 18 had been detained. And just last week, at least five children—one just 2 years old—were detained in Minneapolis as part of an increased crackdown in the city.
Over the last few weeks, tensions surrounding ICE have gone from a simmer to a boil after immigration enforcement agents shot and killed poet Renee Good and ICU nurse Alex Pretti.
In both cases, the federal government lied to the American people about what happened.
Trump claimed that Good had run over an ICE officer, but the footage he used to prove it showed that the officer was only lightly brushed. And the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accused her of being a “violent rioter” committing an act of “domestic terrorism” with no evidence.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem responded to the killing of Pretti by saying he was brandishing a weapon and “impeded the law enforcement officers and attacked them.” But that wasn’t true: All of the footage shows Pretti holding a cell phone and monitoring the protest he was attending. While he had a gun holstered on his waist, he never brandished it, and officers took it from him.
This deceit spans beyond Minnesota. In September, DHS claimed that Silverio Villegas González, who ICE killed by shooting him in the neck while he was coming home after dropping off his two children at school and day care, had hit and dragged an officer with his car. But there was no video evidence of this despite multiple angles of the incident being caught on camera, and one of the officers reported that his own injuries were “nothing major.”
Over the last year, immigration officials falsely accused protesters in Los Angeles of assaulting border patrol officers. They also inflated the number of assaults against officers nationwide and mislabeled footage of ICE operations in their advertisements.
Americans Are Fed Up
As all of this has unfolded, Americans are increasingly fed up and scared of ICE. A YouGov survey conducted just hours after Pretti’s killing found that more Americans support than oppose abolishing ICE. That includes nearly 20% of Republicans.
Last Friday, tens of thousands of Minnesotans protested in the streets, more than 700 local businesses closed their doors, and countless workers stayed home from their jobs in the first citywide general strike in the U.S. in nearly 80 years to protest ICE’s operations in the state.
Former President and First Lady Barack and Michelle Obama wrote a statement saying that Pretti’s killing should be “a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, [and] that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.”
And some local government officials, including in Arlington, Virginia and San Luis Obispo, California, are encouraging citizens to call 911 on ICE agents.
What Are People Doing to Push Back?
As frustration grows, here is what some Americans are doing to fight back:
ICE Watch groups are springing up in cities across the country. In Minneapolis, citizens are patrolling ICE activities, often posting up on street corners or near at-risk vendors, and encouraging people to report sightings of the agency. To remember which details to report, some organizers are recommending people use the acronym SALUTE:
Size (how many agents)
Actions (what they’re doing)
Location (where they are)
Uniform (what they’re wearing)
Time (when you observed them)
Equipment (what weapons or other gear they have)
Churches, grocery stores and activist groups are buying and delivering groceries for people scared to go outside because of ICE crackdowns. Dios Habla Hoy church in Minneapolis has delivered food to 17,000 families since December.
NGOs like Amnesty International are posting scripts for Americans to call their representatives and senators to pressure them to oppose ICE funding. “Call 347-514-6400 Now to Urge Congress to Stop Billions of Dollars for ICE,” one post reads.
Organizations like the ACLU have resources to know your rights as a bystander during ICE actions. Some of these rights include filming the action and refusing to grant law enforcement access to your phone or other devices without a warrant.
As more citizens find ways to push back and 61% of American voters say the tactics used by ICE have “gone too far,” one thing remains true: A dark chapter in U.S. history is being written in real time. It’s unclear if that chapter will veer closer to pitch black or if things will begin to brighten.
ICE
A Limerick
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Mongrel dogs hunt in a pack
Displaying the courage, they lack
Just small little men
Who’ll do it again
Weak incels with minds out of whack.