Getting the Numbers Right: ICE Deaths Are All-Pervasive

In 2025 alone, there were 32 people who died in ICE custody. That was the deadliest year of ICE in two decades, according to The Guardian. The article went on to memorialize each person, as I have also done on my Substack. In 2026, there have already been 6 deaths in ICE custody, one of which was ruled a homicide. We’re hardly a month into the new year. There are also hundreds of detainees missing from the infamous “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida. Vanished without a trace. People, however, remain fixated on 9 deaths alone at the hands of ICE agents on what I call the expansion of the American killing fields, the latest being the clear extrajudicial execution of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Minnesota. While these deaths are critical to note, they should not be isolated from the ones that have occurred in ICE custody. None of these people should be dead. Not a single one of them. They are all evidence of a rogue paramilitary agency that has been granted carte blanche immunity by a mafia-run administration, hellbent on terrorizing the entire country. (One also wonders who has died when dumped in other countries once they have been deported, too.) The sadistic impulses of this administration cannot be understated, and death here is all-pervasive.

I was aware of the misery Trump planned to inflict when he won his first election. When I expressed my deep concerns, many told me I was “overreacting,” “that the checks and balances would keep him from abusing power,” and “his rhetoric was just bluster.” Here we are now.

If I sound angry, that’s because I am damned angry. Like many of you, I’m enraged as I write this piece because none of this needed to happen. But here we are. We should have listened to Black and Brown communities long ago, but we were too privileged and comfortable to heed their warnings. But, again, here we are, and we must accept our fate. White supremacy is on full display, unbridled, out-of-control, brazen, murderous, killing anything that dares confront it.

The escalating violence need not be inevitable. White-hot anger can be channeled into helping neighbors, building coalitions of resistance, and loving one another. Spiraling into violence will only be met with even more violence from the State. What they are doing to people on the streets must be far worse in the concentration camps, behind the walls, hidden far from view, away from eye witness accounts and cameras. We must all collectively rise up and say enough to this brutal regime. We all have a role to play now. I realize it’s easier said than done, but people in Minnesota and elsewhere are showing us how it’s done—through community action. It isn’t too late. Good and Pretti were out there, as I’ve said before, doing the work, and the lives they led are illustrations of what it means to be good Americans. Keith Porter, too, was a loving, devoted father to two daughters. These are people we look to in our communities, and those who we cannot see, hidden by walls, languishing in concentration camps, must also be fought for as well, and we know that. That is why we must insist on abolishing ICE and granting citizenship to all here. The situation we have now is untenable and enables the government to terrorize not just undocumented workers but all of us. It is clear: this was never about immigration. The sooner we come to terms with that, the sooner we understand their aims. (A quick look at NSPM-7 illustrates that this regime was never focused on immigration, but pitting Americans against one another.)

I have a plan of action for the coming days and this weekend. I hope you do, too. The time to stand on the sidelines is over. The time to act now is imperative. Your community needs you. On that note, not everyone is able-bodied to attend protests, but there are other ways to fight back. We can all play our own roles in bringing down this fascist regime. For example, last week, I called my mayor’s office and emphatically told them that I did not want ICE in my community. I was inspired to do that after learning that Mayor Brett P. Smiley signed an Executive Order (EO) prohibiting ICE from operating on city property in Providence, Rhode Island. Talk to your neighbors, encourage them to call your mayor to implement a similar EO. In addition, Senate Bill 245 in Maryland would limit ICE's operations in the state. Explore to see if there are similar bills in your state. These are just a few ways you can push back in your own city or state.

We are not powerless. While we are witnessing more death around us, we must refuse to be silenced. Instead, we need to make our voices louder. Do it for Good, for Pretti, for Porter, and for the millions who continue to be terrorized by this regime.