The People v. Agents of Chaos and Cruelty

In recent weeks ICE has killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine, following the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. Dozens more people have died in ICE's detention centers.

Federal law enforcement are committing civil rights violations at a scale without precedent in our nation’s recent history, and with the support of an administration that encourages violence and disregard for the law.

ACLU affiliates are fighting back by filing 54 claims across 17 states and Washington, D.C. against the federal government to demand justice for citizens and noncitizens alike who have suffered serious violence, abuse, and neglect at the hands of federal agents. Each claim tells an individual story. And together, they reveal a widespread pattern of civil rights violations and abuses that endanger us all.

Check below to see where these claims have been filed and the types of abuses federal law enforcement has inflicted on our clients.

Federal law enforcement are abusing people who are simply exercising their First Amendment rights.

Since the President Trump began his second term, people, regardless of their immigration status, have faced relentless attacks for exercising their First Amendment rights. 13 of our affiliates’ clients were retaliated against for exercising their First Amendment rights across 5 states and Washington, D.C.

The ACLU of New Jersey’s client was operating a mobile health clinic outside an ICE detention center where active protests were taking place inside and outside the facility — then she was attacked by ICE.

Norma Bowe, is a grandmother, professor of public health at Kean University, and registered nurse who operates a mobile clinic that provides free medical services to people across northern New Jersey. Since May 2025, her clinic has regularly stationed at Delaney Hall to support families visiting loved ones in the detention center.

“ICE agents are acting like they have impunity and are inflicting harm however and whenever they want; without accountability, more people will get hurt and die. ICE must be held responsible.” - Dr. Norma Bowe

Throughout the protests related to the detainees’ hunger strike, she was operating her mobile health clinic. One day, an ICE agent grabbed Norma and violently threw her to the ground.

ICE is incarcerating people in dangerous facilities, where people detained are subjected to systematic abuse and egregious medical neglect.

Right now, there are a record 65,000+ people in ICE detention facilities nationwide as the Trump administration rushes to expand the ICE detention machine fueled by the for-profit private prison industry. For decades, ICE detention has been notorious for horrific rights violations, medical abuse, and utter disregard for the dignity of people in custody.

14 of our affiliates’ clients experienced abuses in ICE detention, and their stories are only the tip of the iceberg.

Two of the ACLU of Louisiana’s clients were denied access to medication, forced into physical labor, subject to severe physical and sexual abuse, and retaliated against, including by being placed in solitary confinement.

Mario Garcia-Valenzuela and Luis Renteria Gonzalez were detained for nearly two and three years, respectively, at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, Louisiana. They suffered forced labor, physical abuse, sexual abuse, inadequate medical care, and severe retaliation by the facility’s staff, including placement in solitary confinement.

“I’m speaking out now because ICE needs to be held accountable for what happened to me. And because I don't want this to happen to anyone else.” - Luis Renteria-Gonzalez

As trans men, Mario and Luis were forced to perform intense manual labor in an off-the-books program that targeted transgender and masculine-presenting LGBTQ+ detained people. They were assaulted by officers and suffered serious injuries from forced labor. When Luis and Mario filed complaints about this abuse, they were held in solitary confinement for weeks, where they were denied food and access to their attorney. Mario was repeatedly denied his seizure medication, causing him to have at least 10 seizures in a one-month period, leading to his hospitalization.

They both also experienced and witnessed sexual assault and harassment, including being forced to stand guard while an officer raped a detained woman. And when their families came to visit them in detention, officers stalked their families in the nearby town.

ICE and federal law enforcement are racially profiling and arresting U.S. citizens unlawfully.

Federal agents’ actions have not only harmed people without permanent legal status, but also U.S. citizens.

In fact, more than half of our affiliates’ clients (29) were U.S. citizens harmed by federal law enforcement — and of those, 12 U.S. citizen clients were racially profiled and unlawfully detained.

One of the ACLU of North Carolina’s clients, a U.S. citizen, was racially profiled and put into a unmarked SUV before federal agents released him, bleeding, on the side of the road.

Willy Wender Aceituno, a U.S. citizen in North Carolina, was on his way into a restaurant when four armed and masked immigration agents surrounded him, pushed him against an agency’s vehicle, and forced him to provide identification to confirm his citizenship. Mr. Aceituno provided his Real ID driver’s license, and after confirming his citizenship, the agents walked away.

But moments later after returning to his truck, agency vehicles pulled in front and behind him to block his exit. While he began to record, the agents shattered his window and attempted to grab his phone before holding Mr. Aceituno in a headlock and pulling him from his truck. He was thrown onto the pavement, which was covered in broken glass, and he suffered bleeding cuts all over his body. Mr. Aceituno was handcuffed, placed in an unmarked SUV, and driven away from the scene. He kept repeating that he was a citizen while the agents continued to tell him to “shut up.”

Eventually, the SUV stopped, an agent took Mr. Aceituno’s wallet from his front pocket and confirmed that he was a citizen with no criminal record. The agents released Mr. Aceituno on the side of the road, still bleeding and 2 miles away from his truck.

As these stories show, federal agents’ abuses are not limited to any one population, demographic, or surge. The ACLU’s new report, Agents of Chaos and Cruelty, underscores how federal agents' conduct has harmed citizens and noncitizens alike in states across the country.

The report examines immigration enforcement incidents in eight states and found that over 400 of the more than 1,200 immigration enforcement incidents examined involved misconduct by immigration agents.

Though the incidents examined represent a small fraction of total reported enforcement activity in 2025, the pattern across eight states makes clear that excessive force, racial profiling, intimidation, and abuse by both federal officials and state and local law enforcement are paramount to the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant agenda.