Although violence occurring at the hands of ICE agents may seem overwhelming and shocking, historically speaking, it is an unsurprising tactic of empire. Oppressors use violence, fear and illegal measures to account for their weaknesses.
BNG’s Mara Richards Bim has reported on the ground in Dallas, Chicago and Minneapolis, offering a closeup of the violent force used by ICE. She calls it the federal government’s “occupation” of American cities.
We’ve also had on-the-ground coverage in Charlotte by Mark Wingfield, consistent news updates from Jeff Brumley and a variety of opinion pieces condemning the violence, from writers like Braxton Wade and Bill Leonard.
But this use of force isn’t new.
For centuries, detainment, beatings, sexual abuse and other forms of private and public violence have been used by oppressive regimes.
The purpose? To scare citizens into submission so they will align with state-sanctioned behavior standards. This is why citizens in the Roman Empire struggled to revolt, Germans helped the Gestapo and Americans assisted slave catchers.
The Praetorium, ancient Roman era ruins at Gortyna of Crete island in Greece. (Shutterstock)
Roman praetoriums
This is also the reason Jesus was crucified.
The Roman Empire used crucifixion, gladiator fights, death by beast and other publicly viewable tortures called “spectacle deaths” to maintain the community’s submission. Detainees typically were stripped of their clothing, publicly displayed and mocked by Roman officials.
Many crucifixion victims endured a range of sexual abuses during detainment, as well as physical beatings. This often occurred in the privacy of the “praetorium” (often translated “the governor’s headquarters” in the Gospels). This was the detainment facility where the battalion of soldiers and their prisoners would have been housed.
Kind of like what happens in an ICE detainment center, what went on inside the praetorium was unknown to the public. It was, however, widely known to be an abusive environment feared by everyday citizens.
“Their fear-based compliance was the empire’s goal.”
Their fear-based compliance was the empire’s goal.
Citizens gravely outnumbered soldiers at the Roman Empire’s disposal. So, any civil revolution could easily overthrow local governments. Of course, government officials wanted citizens to believe the opposite.
This is why spectacle deaths were public, gruesome and humiliating: Panic at the sight of this torture clouded parallel realities — resistors outnumbered oppressors and revolution was possible.
Foligno car, the team ‘me ne frego’ of the fascists of foligno with a car equipped with a machine gun. (Photo by: Universal Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Mussolini’s Italy, Nazi Germany and Integralist Brazil
This is not merely an ancient thing. Abusive leaders have accessed the same violence-centered playbook for centuries.
For instance, researchers who studied sexual attitudes and behavior among men in fascist Italy have suggested a link between fascist ideology and sexual intimidation methods used by Mussolinian squadristi (police). This was believed to be tied to ideals of masculinity and gender roles in the policing environment and has remained a characteristic detail of fascist leadership ever since.
In Italy, squadristi used violence, detainment and murder to control citizens who did not conform to the state’s behavioral standards. Sexual exploitation and humiliation comprised a big part of this, as documentation suggests they often raped dissenters and forced young girls into prostitution.
This all contributed to squadristi’s sense of superiority to minority groups.
A wealth of survivor testimonies, photos and videos describe this same style of sexual abuse in Nazi Germany, alongside the numerous other types of abuse.
For instance, just as the Roman Empire stripped spectacle death victims and the squadristi sexually exploited political dissenters, Schutzstaffel (the SS) and the Gestapo often humiliated victims by requiring them to strip publicly. This often preceded further physical or sexual abuse, then murder.
Anyone could be stopped and victimized. Officers could ask everyday citizens for their “papers” proving legal status — and they were forced to comply. At the discretion of an individual officer’s opinion of them, victims could be detained then abused, tortured or murdered.
These surprise detainments also occurred in Integralist Brazil under the fascist leadership of Plínio Salgado, the creator of the Brazilian Integralist Action movement. Anyone who was perceived by the state to hold dissenting political views could be detained without warning or explanation.
This often preceded physical, sexual or psychological abuse and sometimes death.
For instance, Brazilian citizen and now world-renowned journalist Miriam Leitão was abducted, detained, forcibly stripped and physically abused at the hands of federal officers. Leitão was one of many detained and tortured by police.
She, along with her former romantic partner, was verbally harassed and threatened, forced to share rooms with dangerous animals, groped and beaten.
Depiction of Mississippi slave patrol (Wikipedia)
Slave patrols
But for Americans, this is not a lesson far away in history or something that happens “over there.”
Slave patrols comprised the earliest form of policing in the United States, created with the express intent of detaining and enslaving as many runaway slaves as possible. All African Americans were racially profiled — even free/freed people living in states where slavery was no longer legal, as well as those with “papers” proving their manumitted status.
To ensure they captured as many Black bodies as possible, slave patrols used fear to compel local law enforcement officers to assist them in these kidnappings. They also threatened community members with violence and legal repercussions if they harbored runaway slaves or lied about knowledge of their whereabouts.
And, of course, detainees were subject to intense physical and sexual violence.
This patrolling officially ended with the Civil War but quickly was replicated by militia groups who worked to restrict the general freedoms of formerly enslaved people. And in the 1900s when police departments began to be established, among other forms of community patrolling, officers used violent force to uphold Jim Crow laws until the Civil Rights Act passed.
Police dragging a protester outside Broadview Detention Facility in Chicago (BNG photo by Mara Richards Bim)
ICE detainment centers
So, given this history, it is no surprise ICE officers are using the same violent tactics to detain who they want and punish dissenters.
This is why Renee Good and Alex Pretti — as well as many people of color whose names are not being sensationalized in media — were shot instead of arrested or given fines for obstruction of justice. This is why Liam Conejo Ramos and his father were detained, and why journalists are now being arrested for reporting on anti-ICE protests.
This is why ICE officers are waiting in the hallways of immigration courts to detain law-abiding, status-holding families as they exit court-mandated appointments, for which attendance maintains legal status.
And according to a December 2025 letter written by the ACLU to Fort Bliss ICE officers, the detainment facility is rampant with human rights violations, including physical and sexual abuse. In the letter, anonymous survivors say they are being beaten, denied access to prescription medication and threatened with deportation to Mexico — regardless of where they were born.
Multiple reports say this abuse has a sexualized nature, as well, alleging ICE officers often grab male detainees by their testicles and crush them in their hands. Sometimes, this comes with insults comparing the victim to “a little girl.”
At least one victim of this abuse was a teenage boy.
Given the sheer number of detainees in facilities across the United States — and what we know about the use of this abuse throughout history — we should assume acts of physical and sexual abuse just like this and worse occur regularly. Just as ancient Roman citizens knew was true for the praetorium.
But in comparing all these regimes, one pattern is clear: Violence is a sign of the regime’s fragility. Law enforcement officers use excessive, abusive and illegal force because they know resistance will win.
And resistance is exactly what the people need to do.
Mallory Challis
Mallory Challis is a third-year master of divinity student at Wake Forest University School of Divinity. She is a former Clemons Fellow with BNG and is creator of the “Non-Disclosure” podcast series.
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