Having a masked immigration agent point a loaded gun at him was frightening enough for Illinois State Rep. Hoan Huynh, but just as terrifying were the memories it evoked from his previous life in a communist country.
“I think back about my own history and background, being a refugee from Vietnam, and growing up in an authoritarian regime and being afraid of the secret police. And I never thought I would see anything like that in the United States of America in 2025,” he said during an online press briefing hosted by America’s Voice.
Hoan Huynh
Other speakers included Chicago Alderman Matt Martin; Deborah Fleischaker, former acting chief of staff for Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and Raleigh, N.C. resident Jenni Rivera, whose husband self-deported to avoid detention, also joined the panel.
“The Trump administration’s deportation crusade has become a broad-based campaign against anyone that looks or sounds like an immigrant,” said moderator Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of America’s Voice.
The president has targeted cities and states with Democratic leadership. Large numbers of agents and mobilized National Guard troops have been deployed to Los Angeles, Memphis and Washington, D.C. ICE personnel also surged into Chicago and Portland, Ore., but court orders have so far prevented the deployment of military forces to those cities.
The U.S. Supreme Court has issued rulings authorizing the arrest and detention based on skin color and accent and allowing deportations to third-party countries.
Masked ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are brutalizing women, children and men who are not the “worst of the worst” immigrant criminals the administration publicly claims it is targeting, Cárdenas said. “What is so disturbing about this moment is the violent, boorish behavior and lack of restraint from law enforcement. The viral videos on social media are heartbreaking and cannot be pushed away from our conscience.”
Deborah Fleischaker
Huynh and members of his staff experienced the violence of Trump’s immigration tactics firsthand while monitoring the ongoing arrest of people from his district.
“We filmed the encounter, we kept our hands visible, and we clearly identified ourselves by our name and office,” he said. “But despite these precautions, we had ICE agents block our vehicle and one of them aimed a loaded gun at me and at my staff.”
Huynh said he supports legislation that would ban law enforcement from covering their faces while operating in the state. “Certainly, seeing ICE rampage through our communities and neighborhoods has been really disturbing.”
Americans can expect more of the same as the administration beefs up its force of immigration agents while it also removes accountability for the violent actions of law enforcement, Fleischaker warned.
“This is a traveling road show that’s going to continue to move and target new cities.”
“It’s not going to stop in Chicago. This is a traveling road show that’s going to continue to move and target new cities,” she said, adding the ongoing replacement of some ICE leaders with Border Patrol officials is another signal detentions and deportations are becoming increasingly militarized.
Matt Martin
Martin told about an immigrant in his ward who was secretly whisked away by federal agents a day after his 16-year-old daughter came home from the hospital from chemotherapy treatments. “The actions of the Trump administration, and ICE in particular, aren’t making my community safer or making Chicago safer. Instead, what they are doing is wreaking havoc and terror.”
The mass-deportation campaign also is leaving families emotionally and financially devastated, said Rivera, an American Families United Action board member whose husband self-deported Oct. 13.
Her family’s income has been cut by more than half and Rivera said she misses her husband’s companionship and handyman skills.
“Obviously we’re all very relieved that we don’t have to worry about him being put into a detention center, anymore,” she explained. “But there are going to be lifelong effects on our family for the decision we all made for him to leave.”