In the first nine days, Trump's now-unleashed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents claim they have arrested more than 7,400 criminal immigrants across several states. While highlighting small numbers of arrests of people they claim have committed violent crimes, or are gang members, they refuse to account for the thousands of others arrested—and how many have committed no crime at all.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers use chains to hold immigrant during arrest, January 25, 2025, Silver Spring, MD Photo: AP
More than a dozen cities saw ICE arrests being made in the first week. Agents have been seen carrying out raids of homes, work sites, and other locations, striking fear among undocumented immigrants everywhere. Their children, many of whom are U.S. citizens, are terrified their parents will be arrested and deported while they are at school. Now Oklahoma public schools may soon require all students to show their immigration status to enter school. While saying students won't be kept from attending, any undocumented student would have a target on their back.
Fascist Laken-Riley Law Allows Deportation of Immigrants Simply for Being Accused of a Crime
Congress passed and Trump signed into law the Laken-Riley Act, a law that mandates the detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants who have been charged with crimes. You read that right—the law targets immigrants who have been simply accused of committing a crime, not tried or convicted, for deportation. And the crime could be some minor nonviolent offense like small-time theft, not even anything involving violence. This law gives free rein to Trump’s fascist forces to detain for an indefinite period of time and to deport many immigrants for no reason at all.
Think about it: you’re an immigrant without papers and shopping in a supermarket, getting food to cook for your family. Suddenly, the store manager claims that you picked up a piece of fruit and walked out without paying. Pretty soon, you’re whisked away to a detention center, then deported without any trial or lawyer. Think of the thousands of people—many totally innocent—who could be kidnapped off the streets like this and thrown out of this country, separated from their family, friends, and work.
This outrageous law was named after a young nursing student who was murdered last year in Georgia—an undocumented immigrant was convicted for the crime. This is a terrible loss, but the MAGA fascists seized on the Georgia case to push through this hateful, fascist anti-immigrant law that throws due process out the window. The fact is that people born in this country commit crimes at a far higher rate than immigrants. And in a shameful act of complicity with fascism, 46 Democrats in the House and 12 in the Senate voted to pass the law—allowing Trump/MAGA fascists to claim this law passed with “bipartisan” support.
Trump Announces Plan to Hold Immigrants in America's Torture Chamber at Guantanamo Bay
January 29, Trump announced his fascist regime's plan to use the infamous concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to imprison 30,000 undocumented immigrants before deporting them. He bragged this could nearly double the number of holding cells they currently have. The Center for Constitutional Rights wrote:
President Trump’s decision to use Guantánamo – global symbol and site of lawlessness, torture, and racism – to house immigrants should horrify us all... The order ... sends a clear message: migrants and asylum seekers are being cast as the new terrorist threat, deserving to be discarded in an island prison, removed from legal and social services and supports.
Guantanamo, located on the U.S. naval base in Cuba, became a concentration camp after 9/11, where people—overwhelmingly Muslims—captured by the CIA in Afghanistan and other countries accused of being terrorists were sent. Many were held there for years and years without ever being charged, some as young as 18, while being subjected to unspeakable torture. Because it technically is not on U.S. soil, the government claimed the prisoners were outside the legal system, and the justice system did not apply. The implications of this for how these fascists intend to treat undocumented immigrants are chilling.
For decades there has been a separate Migrant Operations Center at Guantanamo used for holding small numbers of people stopped while trying to reach the U.S. by boat. But in the 1990s, more than 45,000 people fleeing crises in Cuba and Haiti were taken to the base and housed in tent cities away from the prison. It is possible such tent cities could be set up, surrounded by barbed wire, and used to hold thousands of immigrants until they are deported. Trump tried to “justify” this crime by saying only the “worst of the worst” would be sent there. In fact, they could send any immigrants to this “black hole,” to be disappeared from accountability.
Deportation Flight to Brazil a Nightmare for Deportees
Early Friday morning, January 24, 88 immigrants were put on a plane to be deported back to Brazil—the first under the fascist regime. The account of their flight was a nightmare. Dozens of men were dragged to the back of the plane in handcuffs, their legs shackled. Women and children without handcuffs were put in the front, including children with autism. Three different times, the civilian plane could barely get off the ground because of engine trouble. Forced to wait four hours at a Brazilian airport still 1,600 miles from their destination, the air conditioning broke, subjecting the deportees to blistering heat. One man with asthma thought he was going to die. Some people fainted. They were given no water and refused use of the bathroom.
One of those detained recounted: “The kids were crying, the parents were screaming, desperate. That's when we decided to do something.” Several of the shackled men stood up, pushed their way forward, opened the emergency doors and went out onto a wing. They shouted for someone to call the police, and soon the Brazilian federal police came and forced the ICE agents to let the Brazilians go. The news that night was filled with scenes of cuffed and shackled men shuffling away from the plane.
According to a Brazilian government official, none of the 88 deportees were “criminals”—they traveled with their documents, indicating they'd agreed to return to Brazil. Top Brazilian officials expressed outrage, calling it a “flagrant disregard for the fundamental rights of Brazilian citizens."
Mayors of Four Sanctuary Cities Become Target of Congressional Committee
A focus of the ICE raids has been on sanctuary cities. These are cities that limit or withhold their cooperation with ICE in enforcing federal immigration law. Now the mayors of four of the largest sanctuary cities—Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York—have been sent letters by the fascist-led House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, “requesting” a year's worth of documents and communications and calling on them to testify at a committee hearing February 11. Their letter says, “Sanctuary jurisdictions and their misguided and obstructionist policies hinder the ability of federal law enforcement officers to effectuate safe arrests and remove dangerous criminals from American communities, making Americans less safe.” It said the four cities singled out "stand out in their abject failure to comply with federal law. Citizens of all four cities have suffered due to sanctuary policies.”