In a new report released today, Amnesty International documented widespread human rights violations committed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and other federal agencies during the Trump administration’s large-scale, militarized immigration enforcement operations in Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New Orleans and Washington, DC.
The report, “We Had Whistles, They Had Guns”: Human Rights Violations in U.S. Immigration Enforcement Operations and the Case to Abolish ICE, demonstrates that the Trump administration is implementing a mass detention and deportation system, fueled by racist, xenophobic and false narratives, whose objective is to detain and deport as many migrants, asylum seekers and refugees from the United States as possible and spread fear throughout immigrant communities more broadly.
“Our report documents a chilling pattern of human rights violations across the U.S. intended to instill fear within migrant, asylum seeker and refugee communities,” said Nadia Daar, Executive Director, Amnesty International USA. “ICE’s record of violating human rights is nothing new, but our report shows many of these abuses have reached a perilous new level.”
The Trump administration has committed a host of human rights abuses, including unlawful killings, some of which may amount to extrajudicial executions; arbitrary and discriminatory incommunicado detentions, including possible enforced disappearances, in some cases in conditions of confinement that may violate the prohibition on torture; violent repression of peaceful protests, and more. Based on these findings, Amnesty International is joining the chorus of community voices calling for ICE to be abolished, immediately.
ICE must be abolished
Amnesty International’s findings demonstrate that the violations documented across the four operations were not isolated or exceptional incidents, but part of recurring patterns of abuse with devastating consequences for immigrants and entire communities.
“Masked and armed federal agents attacking people in the streets with impunity doesn’t make our communities safer — it puts everyone in danger,” said Daar. “ICE is fundamentally broken and cannot be fixed. For the U.S. government to have an immigration enforcement system that complies with international human rights law and standards, ICE needs to be abolished and we need to start over.”
ICE was created in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, and an extremely problematic security framework was adopted in the years following. Amnesty International and other organizations have documented human rights violations committed by ICE and a troubling lack of oversight and accountability since its creation in 2003. However, the scale and horror that we have witnessed since January 2025, fueled by billions of new dollars and persistent impunity, has reached new levels.
Human rights violations
The four operations resulted in human rights violations against immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees, people profiled as immigrants, Black and Brown communities, and those who came to their aid and challenged the conduct of the Trump administration. They also created a pervasive climate of fear that extended throughout entire communities.
Across all four operations, Amnesty International documented:
· Racially discriminatory immigration enforcement operations and arbitrary detention
· Harassment, intimidation, degrading treatment and unjustified use of force by federal agents
· Use of lethal force and unlawful killings by federal agents, which should be investigated as extrajudicial executions
· Repression of protests and use of less lethal weapons, including tear gas and pepper spray, by federal agents
· Unlawful surveillance and facial recognition technology
· Inhumane detention conditions and denial of due process, which should be investigated as torture
· Unlawful incommunicado detention and possible acts of enforced disappearance
As the report documents, ICE agents operated within an institutional environment – openly supported and expanded by the Trump administration – in which violent and racially discriminatory immigration enforcement practices were encouraged by senior government officials, including President Trump. Agents frequently operated with masks and without identification; safeguards intended to prevent and address misconduct were weakened or dismantled; and human rights violations were rarely followed by meaningful investigation or accountability.
The report details an account from Minnesota State Representative Liish Kozlowski, who is Obijwe-Latine, who said: “My cousin was in her car going to work with her husband. ICE rolled up, literally looking for Black and Brown people. They smashed her window at gun point. They roughed her up; she was pregnant. Her husband yelled ‘She’s Native American, here’s her Tribal ID card’. An ICE agent responded, ‘That doesn’t [expletive] matter, this is our land now’.”
This is just one example from dozens in the report where ICE agents appeared to be engaging in explicit racial profiling.
“Racially profiling and snatching people off the street, separating families and arbitrarily detaining people are not only unlawful, cruel practices, but profoundly damaging,” said Ana Piquer, Americas Director at Amnesty International. “These practices violate human rights and cause fear and psychological distress and long-lasting health concerns to children, other family members and entire communities.”
The report also highlights how communities came together to resist and protect one another. These networks played an essential role in documenting human rights violations, and being there for their neighbors, through mutual aid networks, constitutional observer trainings, rapid response networks, walking school buses, and more in order to stand by and protect those most directly impacted. Protests were one important tool of resistance, but were frequently met with additional acts of lawlessness by ICE and Border Patrol agents.
For example, in Chicago, the Broadview facility became a focal point for protesting against ICE and Border Patrol’s actions in the city. Reverend David Black, who frequently went to the Broadview facility to do ministry, said, “The escalation of violence by ICE and CBP at Broadview when we were just praying and chanting was terrifying.” During one ministry service he led at the facility, Reverend Black, who was dressed as Clergy, was calling on three federal agents who were standing on the facility’s roof to repent, when the agents suddenly shot him in the face, arms and torso with exploding pellets of pepper spray. He is one of the numerous people whose experiences are documented in the report.
The report highlights numerous additional human rights violations during these cruel immigration enforcement operations. Amnesty International researchers interviewed 154 people across the four locations, allowing the organization to analyze how immigration enforcement operations affect diverse communities across different political, legal, and historical contexts, and to conclude that the human rights violations documented reflect broader national patterns rather than being isolated local incidents.
“It is heartbreaking to see the pain and suffering caused by this Administration as it criminalizes and demonizes immigrants,” said Daar. “I’m also hopeful – communities have rallied around those targeted and in some instances forced the Trump administration to back down. We must hold accountable those government officials responsible for this reign of terror, and we must keep fighting for an immigration system that is grounded in human rights and dignity, not cruelty.”
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