ACLU Border Rights Center Comment on Border Patrol Killing of Undocumented Woman

A new ACLU report reveals the scale of civil rights violations committed by ICE and the police forces it has deputized — from racial profiling to school lockdowns.

WASHINGTON— The American Civil Liberties Union today released a new report, Agents of Chaos and Cruelty, documenting widespread civil rights violations carried out by immigration agents during the first year of President Trump’s second term. The report examines immigration enforcement incidents in eight states – representing a cross-section of the country and reflecting varying degrees of federal law enforcement presence and personnel surges – and found that over 400 of the more than 1,200 immigration enforcement incidents examined involved misconduct by immigration agents. The report comes just days after ICE shot and killed two men in Texas and Maine, underscoring the agency’s out-of-control enforcement practices nationwide. It is the first in-depth civil rights review of immigration enforcement actions throughout 2025 in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, and New Mexico. The reviewed incidents across these states pull from prior ACLU litigation, research and advocacy, as well as congressional investigations, human rights documentation, and investigative reporting that found similar patterns during the same period. It is also the first in a series of reports to be published by the ACLU ahead of the 2026 midterm election in an effort to urge lawmakers to support an affirmative vision for immigration reform. Though the incidents examined represent a small fraction of total reported enforcement activity in 2025, the pattern across eight states is unmistakable: what happened in Minneapolis, where federal agents killed U.S. citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Good, was not confined to that location, surge, or population. They were part of a pattern of civil rights violations of excessive force, racial profiling, intimidation, and abuse by both federal officials and state and local law enforcement. “Far beyond Minneapolis, the Trump administration has deployed a national deportation policing force that has committed civil rights violations at a scale and severity without parallel in modern American history – turning schools, bus stops and grocery stores into sites of violence and abuse,” said Naureen Shah, director of policy and government affairs and report author. “These are not isolated events. Stephen Miller took these tactics straight from the authoritarian playbook and is now overseeing a $240 billion immigration enforcement machine that threatens all our rights.” Among the report’s key findings: Agents used force and the threat of force as default tactics. The report documented 418 times agents pushed, shoved, tackled or pinned people; 361 times agents deployed chemical irritants, including 131 times they were directly aimed at individuals and 81 instances when agents used tactics that can limit breathing and become deadly, such as chokeholds. Instead of protecting children, the administration turned their enforcement tools against them. The report identified 214 children who were detained, targeted for enforcement or experienced law enforcement misconduct, including 32 U.S. citizen children. Racial profiling by federal, state and local agents was rampant. The report documented 437 incidents involving likely racial profiling by agents. U.S. citizens were often impacted in immigration enforcement. The report identified 155 U.S. citizens detained, targeted or who experienced law enforcement misconduct. Agents routinely conducted enforcement at or near sensitive locations, including 49 documented incidents at or near schools – prompting 40 school lockdowns. Protesters, journalists, elected officials, clergy, and community observers were also regularly targeted by immigration agents. The report found that 782 total people in those groups were detained, targeted, or subjected to misconduct. The report also documents a systemic breakdown in accountability. Agents masked their faces, drove unmarked vehicles, and wore clothing that did not quickly indicate an agency affiliation. With multiple agencies outside ICE redirected to conduct enforcement, these tactics sometimes made it difficult for people to know whether they were being criminally abducted and made it impossible for victims and bystanders to know who to hold responsible for abuse. Critically, the report highlights how oversight measures have failed to hold immigration agents accountable. Congress had an opportunity to reform ICE during recent funding negotiations but instead passed a blank check without the commonsense reforms that advocates and communities made clear were needed. The Agents of Chaos and Cruelty report urges policymakers to call for transformative change to our immigration system, in recognition that it is broken and dangerous to human rights. Recommendations include: Pass a path to citizenship for millions of people who are immigrants, such as through the American Dream and Promise Act. Replace our broken system with a new immigration management agency oriented toward service, keeping families together and meeting the needs of the American workforce. Dismantle the national deportation policing force, including by ending ICE’s 287(g) program that draws state and local police into deportations. Ensure that people who are victimized can sue and hold federal law enforcement officers and agencies accountable for abuse, including by enacting the Bivens Act and Constitutional Accountability Act. Enact limits and robust oversight measures on collaboration and deputization between state and federal law enforcement. Throughout the ACLU’s affirmative vision report series, policy and legal experts will explore how the Trump administration’s immigration agenda has harmed communities nationwide, gutted asylum and other legal pathways, undermined our democracy, and wreaked havoc on key industries and weakened the American workforce. The series will also outline steps that members of Congress, as well as state and local policymakers, can take to reform the U.S. immigration system and inoculate against future attacks on immigrant communities. You can read the full report and findings here: https://www.aclu.org/publications/agents-of-chaos-and-cruelty-how-the-trump-administrations-national-deportation-policing-force-has-attacked-american-communities

With Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche set to appear before the Senate for a hearing to potentially confirm him to the post, senators have no shortage of questions to ask about his record.

The ACLU, ACLU of Arizona, and the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project are seeking an emergency injunction to stop the previously deferred Section 5 of Proposition 314 from taking effect PHOENIX — The American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Arizona filed a federal lawsuit last night on behalf of the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project challenging Section 5 of Proposition 314, a previously deferred provision that would unconstitutionally usurp federal immigration enforcement power by making it a state crime for some immigrants to enter or remain in Arizona. Courts across the country have repeatedly reaffirmed that immigration enforcement is a power that belongs exclusively to the federal government — not the states. Section 5 had been on hold due to litigation against similar laws in other states, but it is now poised to take effect. The groups are asking the court to immediately block the provision, citing a violation of the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which clearly establishes that immigration is a federal responsibility. “Section 5 of Proposition 314 is a permission slip for local and state law enforcement to engage in blatantly unconstitutional acts like racial profiling, unlawful arrests, and illegal detentions,” said Tara DeGeorge, legal director at the ACLU of Arizona. “It will upend Arizona courts, tax an already overextended state prison system, and result in mass due process violations. Arizona’s communities should not have to pay the price for this unconstitutional experiment.” The groups seek a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to prevent the harm that Section 5 would cause immigrant, Latino, and communities of color across the state. “Section 5 of Proposition 314 creates an entirely separate and parallel detention and deportation system,” said Roxana Avila-Cimpeanu, deputy director at the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project. “If it goes into effect, countless members of our communities, including vulnerable youth and individuals with mental health concerns, could end up jailed throughout Arizona on state immigration charges, intentionally isolated from expert legal support and potentially deported without ever having a fair day in court.” “Regulation of immigration into the United States is an exclusively federal power that cannot be usurped by Arizona or any other state. The Supreme Court reaffirmed this basic principle in response to an unconstitutional Arizona law 14 years ago,” said Kate Huddleston, senior staff attorney at the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project. “Proposition 314’s Section 5 is likewise unlawful and inhumane, so we’re suing to block it.” Prop. 314 was passed by the Arizona Legislature in 2024 and approved by voters later that year, but Section 5 remained dormant while a similar anti-immigrant law in Texas, Senate Bill 4, was blocked in court. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a lower court’s injunction against S.B. 4 solely on procedural grounds on May 15. Section 5 of Prop. 314 goes into effect after a comparable state law has been in effect for 60 days. Without court intervention, local and state law enforcement agencies may move to enforce Section 5 as early as July 14. While at the Legislature, Prop. 314 (then House Concurrent Resolution 2060) faced scrutiny from stakeholders across the political spectrum. At the time, the ACLU of Arizona repeatedly raised concerns about the bill’s unconstitutionality, and immigrants’ rights advocacy groups pointed to parallels between the resolution and Arizona’s notorious anti-immigrant law, S.B. 1070, portions of which were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. To take effect now, amidst the Trump administration’s rampant and extreme immigration enforcement tactics, Section 5 would put Arizona’s criminal justice system at the center of cruel, inhumane, and in many cases unlawful actions against Arizona’s immigrant communities. Read the complaint here. Read the motion for preliminary injunction here. Read this press release in Spanish here.