I’ve read countless news stories and watched clip after clip showing the brutal tactics ICE uses. They make your blood boil. This is America—there should be no place in this country for what I’ve seen. But even the most shocking headlines and videos barely scratch the surface. News stories hit only the broad strokes, and televised clips last a few seconds. We don’t get the context, the buildup, the human details that reveal the full weight of ICE’s abuses.
Yesterday, I watched three victims of ICE aggression testify before a Congressional forum. Hearing them speak in their own voices was stunning. Their stories weren’t filtered through reporters or reduced to sound bites. You could hear the fear, the anger, the grief. You could feel the trauma they carry. And only then do you begin to understand how much the public never sees.
I believe Senator Blumenthal has posted their transcripts online, but the videos of their testimony are far more revealing. Seeing and hearing them speak gives a fuller, more honest grasp of what ICE’s everyday behavior actually looks like.
Marimar Martinez
Marimar Martinez, a 30‑year‑old U.S. citizen and Montessori teacher, was shot five times by a Border Patrol agent after doing what her community had been forced to do for weeks: warn neighbors when unmarked federal vehicles prowled their streets. The agent rammed her car, opened fire as she tried to escape, and then helped craft a false narrative portraying her as a “domestic terrorist.”
While she bled through her bandages, she was photographed without consent, denied proper medical care, and hauled into federal custody. Only later did evidence surface showing the agent had altered the damaged vehicle, bragged about shooting her, and lied under oath. All charges against her were dismissed with prejudice.
YouTube video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkRJUwaofss
Ali Rahman
Aliya Rahman, a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis, was on her way to a medical appointment when she became trapped in the middle of a chaotic immigration enforcement operation. Video shows masked ICE agents shouting over blaring whistles and horns before smashing her car window, cutting her seatbelt, and dragging her out of the vehicle. She repeatedly told officers she was disabled and heading to a doctor’s appointment.
Rahman says she was taken to a detention center, denied medical care, and eventually lost consciousness in her cell before being transported to a hospital. DHS later claimed she was an “agitator” who ignored commands to move her car, but her attorney argues she had nowhere safe to go without risking being accused of attacking officers.
YouTube video link: https://youtu.be/AVvKLT2q2Vs
Martin Daniel Rascon
Daniel Rascon, a 23‑year‑old U.S. citizen, watched his family’s ordinary drive home turn into a nightmare when masked, unidentified men with guns boxed in their truck, smashed the windows, beat his future father‑in‑law, and opened fire as they fled for their lives. Only later did he learn these men were HSI/ICE agents, agents who never announced themselves, never produced a warrant, and couldn’t even identify who they were supposedly after.
Two weeks later, before dawn, the same agencies returned with assault rifles, night‑vision gear, and an armored vehicle, tearing down the family’s doors and pointing laser‑sighted rifles at everyone inside, including Rascon’s pregnant fiancée. A federal judge later found the family’s account credible and dismissed the charges, yet his future father‑in‑law was still held in immigration detention for months.
YouTube video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWsZuz3wmLU
I’ve heard countless guests on news shows insist that ICE is “out of control.” I disagree. They’re very much under control—under the direction of the administration, Homeland Security, and ICE leadership. Others argue that the agents’ behavior reflects poor training. In a broad sense, that may be true. But you can’t explain away what we’re seeing by blaming it on training alone.
When an ICE agent walks up to a woman standing on the side of the road and violently shoves her backward over a snowbank, that isn’t a training gap. That’s deliberate, malicious intent to cause harm. And when agents force a car to the shoulder and approach with guns already drawn, they’re not acting out of caution, they’re looking for an excuse to pull those triggers.”
There is no redemption for ICE. You can’t fix this with adjustments, tweaks, new guidelines, or by hoping that a change in leadership under Trump will somehow rein in the brutality playing out on our streets. The entire structure needs to be dismantled, top to bottom, and rebuilt with strict, independent oversight that actually enforces a real code of conduct.
But under the Trump administration, that isn’t going to happen. And so here we are. The fight to preserve our democracy continues, and so do the horror stories.
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