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Is ICE Deputizing Civilians?

No. They don’t need to. What they are doing is terrifying enough.

6 min readMay 30, 2025
Sloppily dressed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent making an arrest in 2020 | Courtesy of the Department of Homeland Security

Let’s face it. What the Trump administration is currently doing to live up to the lies it told about Latino immigrants on the campaign trail is inhumane and largely illegal, as we have seen in case after case in court. After the administration spent years claiming that millions of criminal migrants were in the country, it couldn’t find many and decided to find ways to criminalize them.

It started with detaining and deporting people for their speech or dubious claims of gang affiliation based on seemingly random and culturally relevant tattoos. Today, the administration is dropping pending immigration cases so migrants can be detained and placed in expedited removal proceedings. Removing that layer of protection that comes with a pending case leaves noncitizens who were doing it the “right way” at risk of deportation for no reason.

This weaponization of an already notoriously inhumane agency like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) didn’t come as much of a surprise considering how much the Trump camp villainized, and continues to villainize, Latino immigrants. ICE agents are conducting raids wearing masks, with little to no identifiers, such as badges. In many cases, ICE takes people as they walk out of court and ignores bystander…

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Arturo Dominguez
Arturo Dominguez

Written by Arturo Dominguez

Journalist covering Congress, Racial Justice, Human Rights, Cuba, Texas | Editor: The Antagonist Magazine |

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