As ICE made continuous use of warrantless arrests, federal agents’ aggressive abuses of authority only worsened. As the nation’s administration grew stronger, more lives were destroyed due to the Department of Homeland Security. Since Trump took office, his “improvements” of our nation’s immigrant “problem” frightened and intimidated innocent people across the country with their brutality. Under new legal plans, ICE had the right to racial profiling as a reason to detain people—meaning that from the color of your skin, job, or even the language or accent you spoke, you were automatically under higher suspicion than anyone else.
In order to first comprehend the state of this issue, we had to understand the main causes that led to this point. Prior to the 2024 election, Trump described his intentions to “fix” America as including “the largest deportation program in American history,” as well as expelling “every single illegal alien gang member and migrant criminal.” In July 2025, the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act massively increased funding for ICE, including deportations. However, in exchange, it included large cuts to foreign aid, social services, and migrant education. Following this law came the Hiring Blitz, a massive campaign by ICE that offered up to $50,000 signing bonuses, student loan repayment, and other incentives. This allowed for a rapid hiring pace, resulting in less well-trained and more reckless agents and officers. Inevitably, this caused violence against innocents.
On January 7, 2026, Renee Nicole Good was murdered by ICE agent Jonathan Ross within her Minneapolis neighborhood. The video showed that following a brief exchange of words, Ross walked in front of Good’s SUV, which was stopped across the street. Later in the video, two ICE agents approached Good’s car and tried to pry open the door while repeating, “Get out of the car.” Good began to pull away from the street and away from the officers before Ross opened fire. Three gunshots exploded into the driver’s side, directly into Good’s face.
In her wake, Good left behind her six-year-old son, now orphaned, his father having passed away a few years earlier. Her son would now grow up understanding that his mother had been failed by her country. This devastating case was just one of many examples of reckless abuses of power and ignorance. This case was merely one of many that had not been spoken about and truly reflected the nature of this country’s administration. As for Jonathan Ross, Vice President JD Vance stated that the officer would have full immunity. Those who supported Jonathan Ross created a GoFundMe to support him and his “trauma.”
Another example of this continuous abuse of authority by the federal government was seen in the events of October 10, 2025, in Chicago. Dayanne Figueroa had just dropped her son off at school before beginning her daily commute. Figueroa was stopped in her tracks by the sight of people screaming, running, and recording chaos among the stopped cars. A silver SUV with tinted windows swerved into her lane and struck her car; the driver’s face was covered with a hat, dark-tinted glasses, and a face mask. Following the officer came two more faceless agents with their guns pointed directly at her. They ripped open her door, demanding she get out of the car. They never identified themselves or asked for her ID, but instead violated her. They dragged her out of her car by her feet, ripped her phone from her hands, and threw her into a red van. When she begged for answers as to why the officers were doing this, she received no response.
She was then pushed onto the edge of a third-row seat with no seatbelt, suffocating body heat, and no AC. She was wedged between two terrified Hispanic men who did not speak English and who were just as petrified as she was. She cried and shook, screaming for help, but instead of being helped, the ICE agents simply filmed her, turning her distress into a spectacle. Figueroa was not treated like a human being, and certainly not like a U.S. citizen. She was preyed upon; they were proud to have captured her, and she was their bounty.
As she was driven to the detention center, she underwent a series of tests before being processed and identified. Figueroa made a point of telling them that she had gone through two recent kidney surgeries, which the detention staff did not take seriously. It was not until Figueroa began to urinate blood that they took a small form of action—not because they cared, but because they did not want her to die in their custody.
“What happened to me almost two months ago on October 10, 2025, was not law enforcement. It was violence, blatant racial profiling, and a shocking abuse of federal authority,” stated Figueroa. The events that took place that day were just a small glimpse into the new normal for citizens of America, a sad reality that had consumed everyday life since the beginning of the Trump administration.
Following these events, on January 14, 2026, Shawn and Destiny Jackson, a couple in Minnesota, were driving back from a basketball game with their six children. On the way, they were greeted by anti-ICE protests and then trapped inside their vehicle by ICE agents. “They stopped at my car, and they proceeded to yell and said, ‘Get out of here.’ They used profanity, and my husband screamed and said, ‘We’re trying,’” Destiny Jackson stated.
Before they could comprehend the situation, agents walked to the back of their car and released a canister of tear gas underneath the vehicle. “Within seconds, there was a big boom, our car was in the air, and then we slammed down. All of our airbags deployed, all of our doors locked, and tear gas started forming—a ball of gas surrounding the car,” said Destiny Jackson.
Destiny then began pulling the children from the smoke-filled car as quickly as she could, with the help of bystanders. The final passenger removed from the vehicle was the Jacksons’ six-month-old. Destiny described the infant as being in critical condition: “When he came out, he was lifeless. There was foam or bubbles coming out of his mouth. I had to give him mouth-to-mouth and CPR. I couldn’t even breathe.” The family reported that although all of their children were physically fine, they struggled with PTSD.
San Marcos junior Camila Lucero Godoy stated, “Migration shouldn’t be a crime; it should be a birth-earned right. How can we continue to say that assaulting, beating, and killing people are crimes with major consequences, but then see that this is the only thing ICE has done without consequences? Shouldn’t they be the ones being detained instead of us?”
The largest epidemic in our country at that time was a lack of pure empathy. This was no longer about politics—it was about basic morals. Was this truly what it meant to “Make America Great Again”?
