FUCK ICE (i have sources cited below)
For the purpose of this article, I want to clear something up.
ICE is no longer an ‘undocumented immigrant issue.’
It is no longer an issue for ‘other people’.
ICE has expanded so much and violated the constitutions so many times that if you consider yourself an American who cares about your community and your rights as a human being, you should be concerned about our government's outrageous human rights violations. In Minnesota, people are scared to leave their homes. Five year olds live in paranoia of being taken away. Suicides, mental health crisis, hunger strikes, and sit ins are not unheard of in Detention Centers. Constitutional and legal rights are violated, even to U.S citizens, on a daily basis. I don’t care if you’re African American, white, Asian American, Latino-whatever. I don’t care if you consider yourself conservative or liberal, republican or democrat, far left or far right. Whatever happens, citizens, immigrants and children are being traumatized. No matter how you put it, this is NOT OKAY.
Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) practices have dramatically changed through the Trump administration. Trump allocated 45 billion dollars toward ICE in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, allowing ICE to increase its number of people using large, street level searches. ICE went from 40,000 detainees on any given day to a 91% increase in detention facilities. It is worth noting that, because of the large amount of street level searches and community raids, the people targeted are no longer individuals with criminal records-they are either undocumented or have overstayed visas, with nearly a 2,450% increase in these types of people in detention centers, whereas the ratio used to be higher in favor of undocumented immigrants and people who have overstayed their visas and committed real, violent crimes. These practices have flooded regions with an unprecedented number of FBI, DEA, and ATF agents.
Racism and racial profiling has also run rampant (the 5th Amendment, which is equal protection against the law), with Somali and Latino communities targeted in Minnesota. Hundreds have marched in freezing temperatures to demand that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and ICE parties leave as they live as they live constantly in fear, with passport carrying during ordinary errands and jobs becoming the norm. Children watch classmates and neighbors being detained, and violent cases of physical assault from ICE in case of filming or confronting them with their abuse, which is a violation of the 1st Amendment in the Constitution (Freedom of Speech). It has gotten to the point that communities have begun thinking it is necessary to organize community rent and grocery funds for families afraid to leave home. M.H and R.M show us this in all its detestable detail.
M.H, who chooses to identify by his initials for fear of retaliation, was a twenty year old Somali-American and worked in a Somali-dominated neighborhood in Minneapolis. While working, he was violently detained by being pushed into metal fencing and handcuffed, then put in a headlock and shoved into the ground. He said he felt like he “couldn’t breathe”, and when he repeated that he was a legal U.S citizen with documentation, he was allegedly told “That don’t matter.” before being forced into an unmarked SUV. By this time, his employer had come outside with copies of his passport and employment records, but the agents drove away anyway (violation of the fourth amendment, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure).
In the SUV, the agents reportedly shut off his phone and scanned his face, asking almost no questions and showing no warrant. This brings to light the almost certain possibility that they had no real idea who he was and the arrest was arbitrary. He was taken to Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, notoriously the first stop for detainees, had his credentials FINALLY scanned and was released but not unscathed. M.H confided in constant flashbacks “Every night when I go to sleep, it replays in my head.”. He also has experienced paranoia, avoiding the malls and public places you used to frequent before and after work for fear of being detained again.
M.H is not the only person who has been in the wrong hands of enforcement. R.M, who has also chosen to identify in his initials, was wrongly seized in another count of violation of the Amendment.
R.M is a Latino U.S citizen, also residing in Minneapolis, had a close call with ICE.
While they were at home, R.M’s five year old daughter wanted ice cream, reportedly saying “I’m brave. I can go.”
They brought passport cards, as carrying identification has become normalized, before returning home to find ICE agents blocking the driveway. A snowplow was coming after a recent storm, making it dangerous to park elsewhere. When R.M rolled down the window and asked the ICE agents to vacate his driveway, they refused as they were attempting to apprehend someone nearby.
R.M’s daughter, who was five years old, became frightened upon seeing the masked agents and began crying and yelling at them.
An agent later entered R.M’s private property without a warrant (also against both the law and the 4th Amendment) and demanded identification. When R.M informed the agent he was a citizen and under rights to not show his identification, he asked him why his documents were needed.
ICE agents allegedly replied, “Because of your accent.” When R.M told the agent he had a similar accent, the agent handcuffed him and dragged him toward the van (again, against the Fourth Amendment). At this time, R.M told the agent he could show them his passport, upon which the agent released him but allegedly threatened. “I don’t care if you’re a citizen, next time I’m going to take you, I don’t care if I have to do extra paperwork.” (I don’t even know how many laws this violates). This scene is also an extreme image of racism, as many white Americans were yelling at the ICE agents in defense of R.M, but none of them were taken. It is a sign of what our country is coming too, when the beacon for equality and democracy can arrest someone for their accent and race.
The story doesn’t end here, however. Remember that all this was done in full view of R.M’s five year old daughter, who was believed to develop both PTSD and paranoia afterward. She watched constantly for tinted window vehicles, and became frightened to leave the house. When they went for ice cream, she begged her father to return home. When they saw a five year old boy being detained by ICE, she allegedly asked her father “They can take kids too?” When they got home after that incident, she closed all the curtains and used the family shoes to block the front door.
The mental health effects of ICE and DHS, Department of Homeland Security, are well documented. Citizens and immigrants alike report widespread fear, paranoia, and trauma. Communities are sheltering at home and parents fear letting their children outside. Work, errands, schools, and public spaces are being affected with communities organizing survival funds for groceries and rent. Minors are suffering from fear and paranoia before the age of ten. I repeat, this is NOT OKAY. We can not let a government organization who is guilty of breaking the Constitution that we stand for a thousand times over.
And I wish I could say it gets better in detention centers… but if you think the apprehension process is horrifying, the detention facilities themselves are even worse.
The California Department of Justice (Cal DOJ) released a report describing the human rights crisis in ICE detention centers, including overcrowding, excessive force, lack of proper clothing, unsanitary conditions, and inadequate food. Detainees have broken down in tears describing insects crawling on the walls, sewage bubbling from drains, temperatures so cold detainees wear socks on their arms as sleeves, and rooms of concrete the size of parking spaces (note: Not parking LOTS, parking spaces. As in barely bigger than a car). Their human and constitutional rights are constantly denied as is their access to lawyers and loved ones, while the First Amendment is, again, denied constantly with threats of violence or solitary confinement to detainees who speak out. I will be talking about the desolate conditions in these places, the mental health effects, and the constant contumacy of the Constitution that we stand for.
In Otay Mesa, overcrowding reaches more than 25% more than its capacity, with overcrowding so overwhelming in ICE detention that ‘housing’, as in concrete rooms that are about as home-like as an ice box, can be holding more than 20-30 more detainees than intended. In some cases, elderly detainees have to sleep on the floor, with such overcrowding overwhelming hygiene staff. Overcrowding is also worsening stress, privacy, and access to care. And all of those levels were already at rock bottom.
The food is even worse than the overcrowding situation, with rations described as undercooked, frozen, expired, or rotten, or in some cases, all four. Detainees have called such food ‘dog food’ and have limited access to fruit and protein. Water is also an issue, with it described as metallic tasting and murky. The water is so bad that it can cause illness in detainees like sore throats and diarrhea.
Even more than the physical conditions, emotional health and boundaries are constantly under threat. Strip searching is common after non-legal visits with loved ones, as in government sanctioned ones through a glass/plastic partition. Female detainees reportedly are forced to fully undress in front of officers and male officers, even while menstruating. All detainees, male and female, describe humiliation, violation, and loss of dignity. Another example of neglect is that most detention facilities lack basic care for the handicapped. A deaf detainee named Jose Ruiz Canizales was denied proper ASL interpretation, and only communicated once through an interpreter during a video call. Whenever he tries to communicate, the staff would ignore him, shrug, or display open ableism by laughing at him.
At California City Detention Facility, where conditions are especially horrific, it is known for its extreme cold. It’s constantly freezing from air conditioning, with extra blankets only distributed before inspections, the same way your mom might clean before guests arrive. Except ICE isn’t covering mud stains, it’s covering human right violations. Detainees at Cal City were punished for covering vents to stay warm, and the facility is described by some as a torture chamber. A justification of this is the disproportionately severe punishments.
For example, in California City Detention Facility, Gustavo Guevara Alarcon was placed in solitary confinement for asking to finish a shower, which is an insane sentence to write. Especially since solitary confinement is as much as a day with little to no human contact, and the effects can include anxiety, panic attacks, depression, PTSD, hallucinations, and cognitive impairment from the sensory deprivation-the UN considers prolonged solitary confinement an extreme effect of psychological torture after fifteen days. Officers allegedly threaten this on detainees for speaking out.
One detainee at California Detention Facility compared it to prison and claimed that prison was actually better-in prison, you could have access to religious services, there were classes for education, exercising, and a lot more medical access-which isn’t hard, considering that the medical access in Detention Centers is basically nonexistent. And I mean, nonexistent.
ICE has recently stopped paying bills for outside medical providers for detainees, meaning they can’t access hospitals, dentists, etc. Detainees cannot pay themselves, as they cannot work or leave the facilities. California Department of Justice inspections uncovered repeated denials of specialist care, with one detainee who needed an eye specialist told that the facility was “not referring to specialists.” A detainee with a broken elbow was denied physical therapy and occupational therapy, and a different detainee with kidney stones was told that treatment would not be possible.
Female detainees were taken in before the facilities were allowed to provide things like pads, tampons, or basic hygienic care as well as reproductive care such as birth control or other protective things, considering it’s very likely men and women detainees were forced to share beds in the cramped areas (I’d look up sexual assault statistics but I don’t have the stomach currently, and I’d be willing to bet my bank account that at least a quarter of sexual assault is done by officers) as well as some female detainees are pregnant and require healthcare for the fetus. Deaths have occurred, including Alberto Gutiérrez Reyes after alleged repeated requests for medical care and four other detainees deaths between September 2025 and 2026 in California City Detention Facility. A spike in ICE detention centers across the country has correlated with the lack of specialist care, despite a court order in February 2026 to provide proper specialist access. A group lawsuit was filed in November 2025 over medical neglect. An example of this is Fernando Viera Reyes.
When Fernando Viera Reyes was arrested, he had two main fears. One: Deportation. Two: Prostate cancer.
“It’s one thing to be healthy and going through that.” He confided, “but I talked to some guys in detention. They said you’re not going to survive, you’re going to suffer.”
While Reyes was in the detention facility, he was experiencing severe symptoms, such as blood in his urine and stool and serious pain from simple movement. He’d taken multiple tests, and they all came up with signs for possible prostate cancer. When Reyes moved to California City Detention Facility, ICE failed to transfer his health records and repeatedly barred his requests for an official diagnosis and a specialist. In fact, Reyes could barely see doctors, much less specialists. He was even denied medication for his SYMPTOMS of pain and blood, and told to take Vitamin C and Tylenol instead. Maybe I’m missing something, but I’m pretty sure I explicitly stated how bad the food was in Detention centers-how do you get Vitamin C with that? And maybe I’m stupid, but could someone tell me how you cure possible cancer with Tylenol, an over the counter medication that is renowned for its ability to cure headaches.
This isn’t the only case of medical neglect-other victims, including Fernando Gomez Ruiz, who was denied insulin despite hazardous blood sugar levels. He was also denied treatment for an ulcer, a dangerous medical condition. Yuri Alexander Rosque Campos was denied heart medications, and had two ER level emergencies where the emergency responder ordered a specialist within 72 hours. Yuri is waiting for said specialist more than three months later.
With all this, it is hardly surprising that mental health is declining in ICE detention centers. Detainees speak of endless anxiety and fear, a thick blanket of desolation and depression. Detainees commonly engage in sit-ins and hunger strikes-and sometimes must suffer from force feeding, a dangerous, inhumane practice. An attempted suicide at California City Detention Facility happened when a detainee attempted to hang himself. Witnesses of this suicide were denied any sort of mental health care or counsel after the traumatizing event and were instead punished if they didn’t return to their cells. One detainee left a note saying he would rather die than be deported, and multiple suicide attempts happen across all ICE detention centers. As of November 2025, 14 people are deported without hearings for every person who can stick it out and remain.
I repeat, this is no longer a problem just for the undocumented, this is no longer a problem for just the immigrants, this is no longer a problem for just other people. No one deserves this type of treatment. Our constitution, the blueprint of the Western Ideal, is being constantly torn down. We are not making America great again, we are making America fearful again. We are making America racist again. Are we in the 1800s or are we in the 2000s? Communities live in fear, racist profiling is embedded in enforcement and trauma is affecting both children and adults, with ICE becoming increasingly unaccountable.
Trump should not be allowed to do this. The Trump administration has violated the Constitution we uphold a million times over, expanding funding for racist organizations under the banner of ‘National Security’. Military adjacent factions are being released into communities and attacking children and law abiding citizens with little accountability. Human rights are constantly ignored. This kind of behavior cannot be normalized under Trump’s name. Speak out. Protest. Research. Write. Do anything you can, even if it’s small. I know this sounds like a Hallmark card, but change isn’t brought on by bystanders who do nothing when they see racist profiling, it’s brought on by people who do something. ICE should be out of our country.
Popular Information — Rebecca Crosby and Noel Sims (May 19, 2026)
American Immigration Council — “New Report Details ICE’s Expanding and Increasingly Unaccountable Detention System” by Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (Jan. 23, 2026)
ACLU — “Inside an ICE Detention Center: Detained People Describe Severe Medical Neglect, Harrowing Conditions” by Hibah Ansari (Dec. 17, 2025)
ACLU — “‘I Have No Rights’: Minnesota Residents Sue Trump Administration for Racial Profiling, Stops Without Suspicion, and Warrantless Arrests” by Hibah Ansari (March 17, 2026)
