Group documents 20 times ICE and CBP shot civilians in past year

The cruelty of U.S. immigration enforcement operations can be counted in rising body counts, attacks against children and families and in the dehumanizing rhetoric federal officials are using toward immigrants and American citizens, according a report by an immigrant rights organization.

“Just over one year into Donald Trump’s second term, his anti-immigrant mass deportation agenda — spearheaded by (presidential adviser) Stephen Miller — has descended into lawlessness and brutality,” America’s Voice said.

Using gun violence data published by The Trace, the humanitarian group reported at least 20 incidents in which immigration agents fired on civilians since 2025, causing a least five deaths and injuring at least nine others.

And the locations of the shootings make clear that agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Border Patrol have been blazing away with their weapons far beyond the borders of Minnesota, where the highest-profile killings have occurred. The incidents include:

• The Sept. 12 fatal shooting of Silverio Villegas Gonzalez by Border Patrol agents in Franklin Park, Ill.
• The 4 non-fatal shooting of American Marimar Martinez by Border Patrol agents in Chicago, Ill.
• The Oct. 21 non-fatal shooting of Carlitos Ricardo Parias by an ICE agent in Los Angeles
• The Oct. 29 non-fatal shooting of Jose Garcia-Sorto by ICE agents in Phoenix
• The Oct. 30 non-fatal shooting of American Carlos Jimenez by ICE agents in Ontario, Calif.
• The Dec. 11 fatal shooting of Isaias Sanchez Barboza by Border Patrol agents in Starr County, Texas
• The Dec. 24 non-fatal shooting of Tiago Alexandre Sousa-Martins by ICE agents in Glen Burnie, M.D.
• The Dec. 31 fatal shooting of American Keith Porter Jr. by an off-duty ICE agent outside his Los Angeles apartment complex
• The Jan. 7 fatal shooting of American Renee Nicole Good by ICE agents in Minneapolis
• The Jan. 8 non-fatal shootings of Luis David Nino Moncada and Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras by Border Patrol agents in Portland, Ore.
• 14 non-fatal shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis by ICE agents in Minneapolis
• The Jan. 24 fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, an American, by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis
• The Jan. 27 non-fatal shooting of American Patrick Gary Schlegel by Border Patrol agents in Arivaca, Ariz.

“We found another 36 incidents in which agents held bystanders, protesters or other people at gunpoint under questionable circumstances,” The Trace study added. “Agents have shot at least four people who were observing or documenting immigration raids and five people who were driving away from traffic stops or evading an enforcement action.”

America’s Voice delved into a report by The Marshal Project to document the violence immigration agents have used against children during enforcement actions.

That data shows “ICE now holds around 170 children on an average day — more than six times the approximately 25 children detained daily during the final 16 months of the Biden administration,” America’s Voice explained.

ICE’s tactics against children include:

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  Federal immigration agents walk 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos to a vehicle in front of his Minneapolis home on Tuesday. (Photo: Columbia Heights Public Schools)

  Using the children of immigrants against their own families. In one case, ICE detained a 5-year-old boy and his father returning from preschool and forced “the child to knock on the family’s door to check for other family members inside, using the kindergartener as ‘bait’ to lure relatives out of their home.”

• Causing injury to children during enforcement actions, including the hospitalization of three children after ICE used tear gas and flash-bang grenades near their family’s van. “Parents reported that their infant couldn’t breathe, and bystanders had to help extract the children from the gas-filled vehicle as they struggled for air.”
• The detention of a 2-year-old and her father during a traffic stop resulting in the girl’s separation from her mother for several hours.
• The deportation of a 5-year-old citizen and her mother as the woman’s visa application was pending.

“ICE agents are patrolling outside schools and daycares, making it unsafe for children to go to school, even U.S. citizen children and their parents,” according to the America’s Voice report.

The organization also found 2025 to be “the deadliest year for ICE detention in decades, with at least 31 deaths in immigration custody facilities across the country.”

“In just the first week of 2026, ICE reported at least three deaths in custody,” the group said. “One of the reported deaths was Geraldo Lunas Campos, whose death was ruled a homicide by medical examiners due to asphyxia from neck and torso compression. The autopsy revealed signs of a violent struggle, indicating he was forcibly restrained in a manner that caused his death.”

America’s Voice also compiled a list of comments by Trump administration officials expressing support for the severity of ongoing immigration enforcement tactics, including:

• President Trump’s statement to “Let the patriots at ICE do their job!” and another describing Renee Good as “a professional agitator,” “very radical” and “very violent” with no evidence to support his claims.
• Statements by Krisiti Noem, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, describing Good’s shooting death as “justified” and that opposition to ICE is “domestic terrorism.”
• Miller’s proofless comment that Pretti, the VA nurse shot by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis, was a “would-be assassin” who “tried to murder federal law enforcement.”