Seeing a battering ram at your door with a nine-year-old inside is simply terrifying
ICE custody now holds 68,990 people—the highest on record—with 49% detained solely for immigration violations, not criminal convictions. Multiple documented cases reveal aggressive tactics: warrantless home raids, excessive force during vehicle stops, and constitutional rights violations captured on video.
- ICE holds 68,990 people in custody—the highest number on record as of January 7
- 49% of detainees have no criminal convictions, only immigration violations
- January 11 raid in Minnesota used battering ram without judicial warrant, only immigration official signature
- Juliana Ojeda-Montoya arrested in November in Fitchburg, Massachusetts; federal judge ordered release citing constitutional violation
- Juan Francisco Méndez arrested in April in New Bedford after agents smashed car window; detained one month, released on $1,500 bond
ICE detentions reach record high of 68,990 people, with nearly half having no criminal records. Documented cases show excessive force and constitutional violations during arrests.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is holding 68,990 people in custody as of early January—the highest number ever recorded. Nearly half of them, about 49 percent, have committed no crime beyond an immigration violation. The rest face criminal charges or convictions. The surge reflects the hardening immigration stance of the Trump administration, and with it has come a wave of documented cases showing agents using force that critics say crosses constitutional lines.
The incidents are being captured on phones and shared widely. One video that sparked particular outrage showed the death of Renee Good, shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. But the pattern extends far beyond that single tragedy. Four days after Good's death, on January 11, ICE agents arrived at a home in Minnesota belonging to a Liberian family. Neighbors and activists shouted as officers used a battering ram to force the door. Inside, a woman livestreamed the raid on Facebook, repeatedly demanding to see a judicial warrant. The agents entered with weapons drawn. She asked them to lower their guns, reminding them her children were upstairs. They arrested her husband, Garrison Gibson, 38, who had a deportation order against him. When the woman examined the paperwork the agents left behind, she found it bore only an immigration official's signature—no judge's authorization. Her husband's lawyer argued the raid violated the Fourth Amendment, which requires a judicial warrant for home searches. "Seeing a battering ram at your door with a nine-year-old child inside is simply terrifying," the attorney told local television.
On November 6, ICE stopped a car in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, carrying a couple and their one-year-old daughter. While police held back protesters, agents yanked open the vehicle to arrest one of the adults. Bystanders shouted warnings about the baby. During the struggle, the driver suffered a seizure while holding his daughter. After removing and handcuffing him, agents took the woman: Juliana Milena Ojeda-Montoya, 24, from Ecuador, accused of attacking a coworker with scissors. Five days later, a federal judge ordered her released, ruling the detention violated her constitutional rights.
Months earlier, in April, ICE surrounded a car in New Bedford, Massachusetts, carrying a Guatemalan man and woman. As she recorded on her phone, the couple told one Spanish-speaking agent they had called their lawyer and would speak when she arrived. The agents did not wait. They smashed the car window with a pry bar to arrest Juan Francisco Méndez, 29, an asylum seeker and father of a nine-year-old boy. His attorney, with more than three decades of immigration law experience, told reporters: "This is the first time I have seen measures this drastic and violent." Méndez spent a month in jail before being released on a $1,500 bond.
These cases are not isolated. Activists and affected families are systematically documenting the encounters, recording videos and gathering evidence for court challenges. Federal judges have begun overturning detentions, citing constitutional violations. The legal system is slowly pushing back against tactics that agents say are necessary enforcement but that critics—and increasingly, the courts—say trample on fundamental rights. What remains unclear is whether the courts can move fast enough to check the pace of enforcement, or whether the documented abuses will continue to mount.
Citações Notáveis
This is the first time in more than 30 years of immigration law work that I have seen measures this drastic and violent— Attorney for Juan Francisco Méndez
The ICE violated the Fourth Amendment by conducting a home raid with a battering ram based only on an immigration official's signature, not a judicial warrant— Lawyer for Garrison Gibson
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why does the number 68,990 matter so much? It's just a statistic.
Because it represents the largest number of people ICE has ever held at one time. It's the ceiling we've never hit before. And nearly half of them haven't been convicted of anything—they're there for crossing a border or overstaying a visa.
But the real story seems to be the violence, not the numbers.
The violence is the story, yes. But the numbers explain why it's happening now. When you dramatically increase enforcement, you get more encounters. More encounters mean more chances for things to go wrong.
In the Garrison Gibson case, the agents didn't have a proper warrant. How is that legal?
It isn't, according to the Fourth Amendment. That's why his lawyer is arguing they violated the Constitution. The agents had an immigration document, but not a judicial order. The woman livestreaming knew enough to ask for it.
What happens to someone like Juliana Ojeda-Montoya after a judge says her detention was illegal?
She was released. But she'd already spent days in custody, separated from her family, over an accusation that a judge later found didn't justify the violent arrest. The damage is done even when the law eventually corrects it.
Is anyone actually being held accountable for these incidents?
That's the open question. The courts are overturning individual detentions, but we don't know yet if agents face discipline or if the agency changes its tactics. Documentation helps—video evidence makes it harder to deny what happened. But accountability requires someone to act on it.
What does a family do after their home is raided with a battering ram?
They live with the fear. They document it. They hire a lawyer if they can afford one. And they hope the courts move faster than the next raid.