Aggressive actions of ICE deepen cracks in US society

Wrongly detained

Arrests can happen anywhere — home, work, church, court, or school, said some people affected by the ICE operations.

"My brother-in-law was taken away by ICE at the parking lot when he came out of grocery shopping,"Juan (first name only for privacy), a naturalized citizen from Latin America, told China Daily. "I don't know how they found him."

The arrest was likely due to a "roving patrol" where ICE agents drive around, stop, question and sometimes arrest people suspected of being in the country unlawfully.

Detentions based on visual assessment sometimes lead to wrongful arrests. More than 170 American citizens had been arrested this year, according to a report by ProPublica released in October 2025.

"Americans have been dragged, tackled, tased and shot by immigration agents. They've had their necks kneeled on. They've been held outside in the rain while in their underwear," said the report.

Notable arrested citizens include a pregnant woman, over 20 children, and a 79-year-old car wash owner who was knocked to the ground. The elderly man, who had recently had heart surgery, suffered broken ribs in the incident, was held for 12 hours, and wasn't given medical attention, the report said.

A US Senate subcommittee investigated ICE's conflict with US citizens and produced a report titled "Unchecked Authority" last December. The report documented more than 20 such cases, and claimed the Trump administration "lawlessly detains citizens based on its own whims".

Good isn't the only US citizen killed by ICE.

On the last day of 2025, an off-duty ICE agent shot and killed a man who allegedly shot at him with a rifle in California. The deceased man's family said the man was shooting the rifle into the air to celebrate New Year when he was confronted by the ICE agent.