In a Democracy where 53% of its citizens perceive an agency’s actions as wrong, why is nothing being done to stop such actions?

Since 2015, Donald Trump has launched his political agenda against immigrants with the infamous slogan “BUILD THAT WALL” towards better border security.

When elected in 2016, he began building “that wall” just 5 days after his inauguration on Jan 25th 2017. It cost taxpayers $12 billion and was completed on January 21st, 2021, ending his temporary retaliation against immigrants.

Following his reelection on January 20th, 2025, Trump’s new “One Big Beautiful Bill Act was signed into law on July 4th. This new “Big Beautiful Bill” includes $150 billion in new defense spending and another $150 billion towards border enforcement and deportations. He then decided to add “some” extra funding for ICE by raising its prior budget from $10 billion to $100 billion by 2029. By doing this, Trump made ICE the most-funded federal law enforcement agency in American History as of 2026, surpassing the combined budgets of the FBI, DEA, and U.S. Marshals Service.

Now in 2026, our newly funded law enforcement is making many errors, predominantly against US citizens and immigrants with no criminal records. According to the American Immigration Council, over 73% of immigrants in custody have NO criminal records, many of whom were quite literally detained “directly during their green card interviews.” This record contradicts Krisi Noem’s statement made on January 19th, under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS): “We are targeting the worst of the worst, including gang members, murderers, and rapists,” when of the said amount only 19,710 immigrants in ICE’s custody/detention center have ongoing convictions for said crimes convicted of; while 53,290 have NO criminal records.

With this ongoing reign of terror on immigrants, according to The Guardian, as of the end of December 2025, it was the deadliest year in ICE detention centers since 2004, leading to 32 deaths and an additional 6 as of Jan 26th. The years 2025 and 2004 are tied with the most deaths in ice facilities; the prior administration to have these deaths was the George W. Bush Administration. In addition to this, a report made by Senator Jon Ossoff identified 510 credible reports of human rights abuse exploitations within the first 6 months of Donald Trump’s administration. Supporters argue that expanded enforcement improves safety, yet this data proves otherwise.

Another error made by ICE, according to ProPublica made within 9 months of Trump’s administration, with the concern over agents detaining U.S. citizens. They reported what the government couldn’t, since, to be clear, the government does not track how many citizens they detain. ICE captured more than 170 U.S. citizens against their will during protests and raids, even elected officials, for “allegedly” assaulting agents, yet those cases were dropped by the government.

Additional errors were made by its own higher-ups. Border Patrol Chief stated, “Then obviously, the particular characteristics of an individual, how they look, how do they look compared to you?” He told Mark Bovino, a WBEZ Reporter (who happens to be caucasian presenting).

In an incident, ICE racially profiled a man named Fernando (he wished not to be fully named to The Guardian out of fear of retaliation). He served in the U.S. for 9 years and is now a veteran. Fernando was pulled over by agents in the morning of December because he fit the description of a Hispanic man they were looking for. While being interrogated for over an hour, he presented his driver’s license, yet agents assumed it was a fake. He then yelled out his Social Security Number, name, rank, and branch of service, yet the officers were unperturbed. Agents screamed at him, claiming he was interfering with an investigation, threw him to the ground, and pressed their body weight onto him. After being unsatisfied, they threw his I.D. onto the floor and flipped him off. “It makes me feel like all of that was in vain,” He told The Guardian.

Fernando’s statement shows the irreparable damage done to U.S. citizens and dozens of others. The fact that citizens have to use a pseudonym to share their experience out of fear of retaliation is simply appalling, with some U.S. citizens even dying at the hands of ICE. Of course, they’d be scared, as I am, being a child of immigrants. The fear that people of color in the world have is inherited, normalized, and now being dangerously ignored by our own government. History repeats itself in a flawed design.