Hi Reader,
Over the past year, we have all watched masked immigration officers use escalating force to carry out the current administration’s immigration policies. Cuts to federal spending have gutted the offices and agencies meant to monitor and rein in abusive actions.
But ProPublica has been documenting what the government won’t.
When Americans started reporting a wide range of troubling encounters with immigration agents, we started digging. Our reporters sifted through both English- and Spanish-language social media, lawsuits, court records and local media reports to catalog all incidents we could find of citizens being held against their will by immigration officers.
In October we revealed that more than 170 U.S. citizens have been held by immigration agents. Among the citizens detained are nearly 20 children, including two with cancer. And more than 20 citizens have reported being held for over a day without being able to call their loved ones or a lawyer.
When government officials said immigration officers use a “minimum amount of force” when making arrests, we documented nearly 50 instances of immigration agents breaking vehicle windows to arrest those inside — something they rarely did before. Use-of-force experts and former Immigration and Customs Enforcement insiders say there is no known policy change greenlighting agents’ smashing of windows. But there are arrest quotas, and they are increasingly aggressive.
We saw immigration agents:
- Breaking car windows while children sobbed inside.
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Smashing glass next to a pregnant woman.
- Dragging people out of cars who don’t have a criminal record.
- Shattering windows to arrest U.S. citizens.
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Breaking into cars of people who weren’t the agents’ intended targets.
- Arresting bystanders who were filming car windows being smashed.
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Using a baton to break a rear window of a white pickup truck, taking the driver to the ground and pressing his head forcefully into the asphalt. The man, last seen in the video bleeding from the head, has not been identified.
We also found that some officers who break glass aren’t being disciplined — they’re being promoted.
Prompted by ProPublica’s reporting, an investigation by Senate Democrats documented the experiences of nearly two dozen citizens wrongly detained by immigration agents. In response to ProPublica’s request for comment, the Department of Homeland Security denied targeting Americans. “We don’t arrest US citizens for immigration enforcement,” an agency spokesperson wrote.
When change is sweeping and rapid, and government oversight is absent, we know readers need a trusted news source that will carefully document what is happening, with the context and the consequences. ProPublica is committed to helping readers understand this pivotal moment in our nation’s history and to chronicling the effects of drastic changes to the role the federal government plays in all of our lives. This work is made possible by donations. Reader support ensures that we have the resources to continue this critical work. Join us.
Thanks so much,
Tova Genesen
Proud ProPublican
