NEDERLAND — It has been disclosed that so far in 2026, the actions of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have caused the deaths of nine people: Alex Pretti, Renee Nicole Good, Keith Porter, Parady La, Heber Sanchaz Domínguez, Victor Manuel Diaz, Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz, Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres, and Geraldo Lunas Campos.

This list includes all deaths, including those who died in custody and those who were killed in conflicts with ICE. Some were protesting and some were individuals fleeing from agents. 

According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in 2026 ICE is operating with “120% more officers and agents after hiring 12,000 Americans to help President Trump deliver on his signature promise,” that of securing the country’s border and ending all illegal immigration. 

In 2025, 675,000 people were deported and 2.2 million people “self-deported,” all of whom were classified as “illegal aliens” by the DHS report released on January 20, 2026. 

“70% of those arrested by ICE are convicted criminals or have criminal charges,” DHS reported. “During President Trump’s first year, ICE arrested 43,305 potential national security risks.” The report highlights the 1,416 arrests and 1,392 “removals” of “Known or Suspected Terrorists.”

Also included are 7,000 total gang arrests, including 1,031 arrests made during Operation Angel’s Honor, a two-week long campaign conducted by ICE in honor of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, reportedly murdered by a member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.  

Additionally, DHS stated that Border Patrol averaged 9,000 apprehensions per month throughout 2025, and that their controlling department—U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)—collected a total of $297 billion from customs revenue, which includes taxes, fees, and tariffs.

The border wall will reportedly be receiving “reinforcement” in 2026 in the form of $11 billion allocated to the CBP within the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” signed in July 2025.  

According to several reports, December 2025 was the busiest and deadliest month of the deadliest year for ICE since 2004. Of the 68,440 people ICE detained in December—75% of whom did not have criminal convictions—seven died in that month alone. 

Last year saw up to 40 ICE-related deaths, caused by seizure, stroke, heart failure, tuberculosis, respiratory failure, suicide, and shooting. Only one ICE agent was killed in the line of duty throughout 2025, during a traffic stop in Coventry, Vermont, in January. 

A total of 92 ICE and Border Patrol agents have died in the line of duty since ICE and CBP were established out of the liquidation of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in 2003. 

According to the CATO Institute, “COVID-19 was responsible for 37%” of those 92 deaths, followed by “car and vehicle accidents at 28%, and health problems like heat stroke or heart attacks at 19%.”

Roughly 274 people have died in ICE custody since 2003. There have been 9,000 deaths as a result of Border Patrol’s duties along the country’s southwest border since 2003, with dehydration, heat stroke, and drowning the leading causes of death. The average number of deaths at the border per year rose above 500 in 2021, and reached 895 deaths the following year. 

When it comes to deaths related to political violence, specifically during protests, the deadliest immigration or race-based protest in U.S. history was the 1863 New York Draft Riot, when Civil War tensions came to the city’s impoverished in the form of a new federal draft law. This led to infighting and clashes among immigrants, police, the elite, and federal troops. Roughly 119 people died and thousands became homeless. 

The 1967 Detroit Riots resulted in the deaths of 43 people, with another 342 injured; a total of 1,400 buildings burned down, and over 7,000 National Guard troops deployed. The 1992 Los Angeles Riots also resulted in thousands of National Guard and federal troops being deployed to American streets; the days of unrest led to the deaths of over 60 people and up to $1 billion in damage.

The 2006 protests for Immigration Rights is considered the largest and most peaceful protest of its kind, as not one protester was reported killed in the four-month period. An estimated six million people participated in 400 demonstrations in more than 200 U.S. cities, opposing the harsh penalties codified by the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005.

A decade and a half later, political unrest had grown to the level where violence at protests became commonplace again. In 2020, a total of 25 people died in conflicts of political violence, half of whom were at Black Lives Matters protests.

There are many factors to point to when trying to explain the rise in political violence, from disillusionment, to radicalization, to media bias, to obvious political collusion. History also shows that immigration policy and enforcement have grown increasingly harsher, as evident by the rising number of deaths and the growing unpopularity of government tactics. 

Recent snap polls around the country conducted just prior to Renee Good’s killing show a sharp decline in approval of ICE, with 52% of those polled stating they disapproved of how ICE was handling its job, and 39% approving of how the agency was conducting itself.

The split is, perhaps unsurprisingly, directly along partisan lines, as 53% of Republicans “strongly approve” and 27% “somewhat approve” of ICE’s actions, while only a net 9% of Democrats approve. 

Despite these figures, Democratic Representatives Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, Laura Gillen and Tom Suozzi of New York, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, Jared Golden of Maine, and Don Davis of North Carolina voted January 23 to pass a funding bill which would allocate $64 billion to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and $10 billion to ICE.

After the death of Alex Pretti one day later, Democrats vowed the funding package would not pass the Senate.

The grips of both parties began to tighten. ICE was allegedly obstructing law enforcement from investigating Pretti’s shooting, and Attorney General Pam Bondi offered to have ICE leave Minnesota if the state were to turn over its voter database to the Trump Administration. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz called in the National Guard in an attempt to de-escalate the situation. 

After the weekend, it appeared as though negotiations were underway to bring peace to the explosive situation. President Donald J. Trump held a closed two-hour meeting with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, and Border Patrol Commander and ICE Director Greg Bovino was forced to step down, to be replaced by White House Border Czar Tom Homan.

Homan previously served under President Barack Obama as the Executive Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations for ICE, and was awarded the Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Service in 2015. 

Throughout Obama’s eight years in office, there were a reported three million deportations conducted by ICE, with nearly half a million conducted in 2012 alone. Obama’s numbers surpass those of Trump’s first term, which yielded a total of 932,000 deportations, as well as former President George W. Bush’s two-term record of two million deportations from 2001 to 2008.

The average number of deportations rose by 100% every year under Bush, strengthened by the creation of DHS and the imposition of the Patriot Act, both of which ushered in a new era of immigration policy with an increased focus on enforcing border security and immigration law and through the increased, targeted surveillance of immigrant communities.

“We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world—bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully,” famed Colorado journalist Hunter S. Thompson opined about the Patriot Act in his 2003 book Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century. 

"Coming of age in a fascist police state will not be a barrel of fun for anybody.”

It appears federal forces are leaving Minnesota, but many fear which state may be occupied next. ICE is already operating heavily in Colorado, though not without opposition. Protests and legal action have been mounting against a potential new detention center in Hudson, and local lawmakers are pushing to pass a law which would prohibit ICE agents from wearing masks.

Both Colorado Senators, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, have stated their intentions to block the proposed $64 billion in DHS funding and $10 million in ICE funding. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and his office have provided citizens the opportunity to log complaints about federal agents’ conduct using the state’s public complaint system, found here: coag.gov/file-complaint.