Every person, whether a U.S. citizen or not, deserves basic human rights that no government agency should be allowed to violate. Since Donald Trump’s second inauguration in January 2025, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has increasingly infringed on these rights, treating both U.S. immigrants and U.S. citizens inhumanely. Because of this mistreatment, reformation of ICE is necessary.
Over the past year, the federal government has expanded immigration enforcement through a mass deportation initiative. When Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, the U.S. held about 40,000 people in immigration detention centers. By December, that number rose to 66,000. In order to support Trump’s aggressive immigration policy, Congress authorized $85 billion for ICE through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, making ICE the most funded law enforcement agency in the country.
As ICE operations have expanded, so too have the acts of violence they’ve committed against people, both within and beyond detention centers.
For instance, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, immigrants detained at Fort Bliss, a U.S. Army post in El Paso, Texas, live in squalid and violent conditions. Within Fort Bliss’s first 50 days of operation, the detention center violated federal standards at least 60 times. Detainees complain of overcrowding, shortages of food and basic hygiene supplies and dangerous living conditions due to improper disposal of human waste. Many also allege that they have experienced horrific abuse, including sexual assault, at the hands of officers. One man died at the facility after an officer reportedly choked him. His death was ruled a homicide.
The situation at Fort Bliss mirrors a broader pattern of careless violence by immigration agents, including against U.S. citizens. On Jan. 7, an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old citizen Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed that Good tried to “weaponize her vehicle” against an agent, but experts have disputed this allegation.
The killing of Good sparked nationwide protests. However, the violence didn’t end there. On Jan. 24, ICE agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, another 37-year-old U.S. citizen in Minneapolis. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claimed that the agents acted in self-defense. However, many argue that videos of the moments just before the shooting disprove the department’s narrative.
The federal government must better regulate ICE activities after these irresponsible acts of violence. Rather than making excuses, the government must discipline agents when they misuse their power. When ICE commits uncalled-for violence against immigrants or citizens, involved agents should be fired.
Furthermore, more ICE funding should be allotted to improving conditions in detention centers and developing a balanced immigration legal system. Since the passing of the Big Beautiful Bill, most of the agency’s money has gone toward aggressive methods like arrests, detentions and deportations while neglecting more civil facets of the immigration process, such as hearings.
Without funding these aspects, immigrants are not given enough of a chance to stay in the U.S., even if they are good, hardworking people who are looking to escape a difficult situation in another country.
Just because immigrants were born in a different country does not mean that they are unworthy of due process and other basic human rights. ICE’s violations of both immigrants’ and citizens’ human rights do not have to continue. With greater agent accountability and funding changes, ICE can be reformed for the better.
No more people should be treated inhumanely or killed by ICE.
