FACT SHEET: Trump’s Mass Deportation Machine Operates with Haste, Deception, and Violence

Immigration enforcement under the Trump administration has become a ruthless deportation operation characterized by violent haphazard arrests, militaristic aggression, and little-to-no oversight – actively undermining Americans’ safety. The administration’s effort to quickly hire 10,000 additional ICE deportation officers represents the largest recruitment drive in the agency’s history – yet it’s riddled with corner-cutting and chaos that compromises basic standards and puts everyone at risk.

Recruits are showing up to training without full vetting, enforcement agents are operating masked and in unmarked vehicles, and military-style tactics are being deployed in American neighborhoods. The result? U.S. citizens and people with no criminal records are being targeted and held without cause. In the meantime, actual criminal investigations get shelved, communities are less safe, and the economy suffers.

According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:

“Election 2025 delivered a clear verdict: Americans are rejecting Trump’s policies that make us poorer, weaker, and less safe. His anti-immigrant, mass deportation crusade—the cruelty, the chaos, the devastation—are exactly the senseless and disturbing actions that voters have come to loath and reject. Yet Trump’s response? Double down on his mass deportation machine. He claims the raids and enforcement actions haven’t gone far enough.

Lawless, masked agents in unmarked cars violently accosting people on the street is not a winning symbol. This disconnect may well be his undoing. As communities witness the horrors being carried out in our name, as families are torn apart and our economy crumbles, the American majority is saying enough. We are demanding a better way forward.”

Border Patrol is taking over ICE operations – and it’s expected to make things worse:

• The administration has handed operational control of interior immigration enforcement to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), an agency that is trained in border security, not community policing.

• This restructuring will usher in a fundamental shift toward more aggressive, militarized enforcement in American neighborhoods far beyond border areas.

• Under CBP official Greg Bovino’s command, the Trump administration is creating “a Frankenstein force” that represents “the worst instincts of Washington,” according to ICE former Chief of Staff Jason Houser.

• As senior ICE leaders are replaced with Border Patrol officials, there is already tension within the agencies as the new leadership questions the loyalty of those who raise concerns and dismisses racial profiling concerns.

The Trump administration is building an unvetted, poorly-trained mass deportation force with dangerous haste:

• ICE is struggling to hire more agents to meet its 10,000-officer quota, so Trump and Congressional Republicans’ massive spending increase is going toward recruitment campaigns that rely on deception and manipulation – including ones that use white nationalist imagery and divisive cultural messaging.

• The administration has spent over $13 million on recruitment ads since August, including $4.5 million during just three weeks of the government shutdown – even as federal workers went without pay and critical services like SNAP ran out of funding.

• The amped-up recruitment is not, however, leading to enhanced screenings: recruits are showing up to training without full vetting.

• The administration slashed training from months to just 47 days, and the rushed preparation shows: there are high failure rates on basic physical and legal tests – sending poorly-trained, unvetted people enticed by racist propaganda and weapons into our communities.

• ICE is reportedly exploring a plan to contract private bounty hunters and offer financial incentives for locating migrants.

Agents are operating with impunity and in the process undermining trust in law enforcement:

• Federal immigration agents are operating with a shocking lack of restraint, transparency, and accountability, provoking dangerous encounters and making it nearly impossible for communities to know who is detaining people – or to hold them responsible when rights are violated.

• ICE officers are using multiple tactics to obscure their identity – including wearing masks (some Halloween-styled) to conceal their faces, dressed in plainclothes without personal identifiers, and using unmarked vehicles with fake license plates to conceal operations.

• ICE operates with far less oversight than other law enforcement, and the lack of body cameras means little-to-no accountability when abuses occur.

• Operating under the cover of anonymity damages public trust and creates an environment where violations go unchecked.

• The climate of fear is leading to underreporting of crime: Chicago neighborhoods have seen a sharp drop in 911 calls, and survivors of domestic violence are increasingly afraid to report abuse. ICE agents even detained a woman at a domestic violence courthouse, further deterring victims from seeking help.

• There’s additional opacity: the Trump administration hasn’t been publishing data on its enforcement operations, leaving the public in the dark about the true scope of its crackdown.

Military-grade weapons and violent tactics are being used in our communities – citizens, (pregnant) women, and children included:

• What should be civil immigration enforcement has been transformed into militarized operations that put everyone at risk.

• From a U.S. citizen woman shot five times by Border Patrol to a U.S. citizen man tased in the face while being detained, violent tactics are escalating across the country.

• The aggression includes car windows smashed, Black Hawk helicopters flown in the dark of night over sleeping families, chemical agents deployed near schools, zip ties used on children, and smoke grenades thrown at peaceful protesters.

• Pregnant women and children are not spared: a pregnant U.S. citizen woman had the door of her home blown off during a raid and a U.S. citizen child with cancer was made to lie on a cold floor beneath incandescent lights as she awaited deportation.

• President Trump endorses these violent tactics. When told in an interview that many people being arrested were not criminals, he stated that ICE raids “haven’t gone far enough.”

• The brutal tactics prompted service members to speak out: “I won’t turn against my neighbors.”

Schools, churches, and hospital areas are not off-limits:

The Trump administration fulfilled a Project 2025 demand by turning traditionally safe community spaces – schools, hospitals, and places of worship – into targets for immigration enforcement, spreading fear among children, families, and entire neighborhoods.

Schools:

• ICE agents have been spotted outside schools across the country, sparking panic among students and parents.

• Armed agents entered a Chicago daycare and chased a teacher inside, detaining her in front of children and staff while one agent searched classrooms.

• School social workers report children as young as 12 asking if “people are out there who might want to take their family.”

• Districts are setting up command centers and organizing community escorts to protect students on their way to and from school.

Hospitals:

• ICE’s growing presence at hospitals is sowing fear among patients and medical staff, with nurses warning that agents are “interfering with patient care.”

• Families are delaying treatment or avoiding emergency rooms altogether, fearing deportation while seeking medical help.

Places of Worship:

• ICE agents have been seen stationed outside churches during services, including a Spanish-language Mass where parishioners were too frightened to leave.

• Faith leaders report declining attendance as congregants fear being targeted for arrest at places once considered sanctuaries.

Bottom line: The Trump administration’s mass deportation apparatus that acts with deception, impunity, and aggression is growing larger and more dangerous – leaving communities terrorized and making everyone less safe.