Since Donald Trump was first elected, immigration control has been significantly increased in the United States. Immigrants across the country, both legal and illegal, have been arrested and deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, commonly without a warrant. ICE has had a heightened presence in Chicago for the past three months, although it has ramped up even more since October. Videos of men in casual clothing wearing police vests harassing and injuring immigrants before loading them into vans and “disappearing” them have been going viral on platforms like Twitter and TikTok.
Operation Midway Blitz, coined by Trump’s administration in September, has resulted in some interesting statistics. As of November 16, TRAC Reports states: “Immigration and Customs Enforcement held 65,135 in ICE detention according to data current as of November 16, 2025,” and out of all detainees, “73.6 percent have no criminal convictions.” One of Trump’s main reasons for enforcing border control and the detaining of immigrants is to stop criminals from entering the United States. This reason does not hold up when three quarters of immigrants that ICE captures have no criminal record.
In Chicago, an apartment building was raided by ICE because alleged gang members were living there. The people living there were undocumented Venezuelans, and according to PBS they had “no criminal records and the government has provided no evidence tying them to terrorism.” Videos on the internet show the “efforts of Trump’s administration,” resulting in unprompted arrests, protests and many actions by ICE agents that may be considered excessive use of force
More recently, ICE has moved to North Carolina, in cities like Charlotte and Durham. Rosemary Brookman, resident of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, has something to say about this: “At first it seemed that ICE would be going after actual criminals who are here illegally. But that isn’t what happened. The immigrant population in my area, hard working, law abiding people, is being targeted. Local restaurants and construction companies have had to shut down because the workers are hiding.”
Atlanta, too, has seen an increased presence and number of arrests. A lawyer interacted with “a mother of two who slept on the facility’s floor for more than a week and a man who spent several nights sleeping next to an open toilet” in Atlanta (Axios). There’s not only ICE advertisements across Atlanta, but reports of an ICE facility holding detainees for weeks without trial.