The influence of the federal government’s mass deportation purge has not been contained to abuses of the immigrant communities alone. They’re being felt by Americans and American communities
One yr in the past this week, we launched Abuse of Energy Watch, a real-time hub on Bluesky devoted to documenting and exposing authorities overreach and abuses of energy. Abuses that concentrate on our democratic values, our lifestyle and the freedoms of everybody dwelling right here irrespective of their authorized immigration standing. The previous yr, we’ve by no means been quick on tales which are repulsive, stunning, violent and lethal, compiling over 578 tales to this point.
Time and time once more, as these tales clarify, this administration has disregarded the rule of legislation and undermined the dignity, rights, and freedoms that everybody deserves.
AUGUST 2025
Andrea Velez, a U.S. citizen and Cal Poly Pomona graduate, was dragged by masked males and subsequently jailed for 2 days regardless of attempting to inform brokers that she had I.D. in her purse. Her arrest by the hands of mass deportation brokers was so violent that her mother and sister, who witnessed the incident, thought she was being kidnapped. The federal authorities additionally sought to prosecute her on a declare that she obstructed an arrest, however finally dropped that cost. She has since sued the federal authorities, alleging civil rights violations.
📍𝐋𝐎𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐒, 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐀:U.S. citizen Andrea Velez was slammed to the bottom by ICE brokers, held 48 hours, and denied water for twenty-four, regardless of exhibiting ID. #AbuseofPowerWatch
— Abuse of Energy Watch (@abuseofpowerwatch.bsky.social) 2025-08-13T14:27:39.205Z
SEPTEMBER 2025
Teen Vogue reported on a disturbing pattern distinctive to the present administration: the rising variety of civilian males impersonating nameless mass deportation brokers in an effort to assault girls. “It wouldn’t be troublesome to do as ICE brokers more and more put on plain garments, conceal their faces to keep away from accountability, and should not required to put on paraphernalia to determine themselves as officers,” the report stated. In one of many horrific crimes cited within the article, one North Carolina man impersonated an ICE agent in an effort to kidnap and rape a girl.
📍 𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋:Civilian males are more and more posing as ICE brokers — sporting plain garments, masks, unmarked autos, to kidnap, threaten, and sexually assault immigrant girls. #AbuseofPowerWatch
— Abuse of Energy Watch (@abuseofpowerwatch.bsky.social) 2025-09-23T14:59:59.518Z
OCTOBER 2025
Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) decried inhumane situations on the CoreCivic-operated Farmville Detention Heart in Virginia, citing rotten meals containing worms and retaliation towards detained whistleblowers who uncovered unsafe situations. “This disturbing occasion is aligned with the detention middle’s harmful historical past of abuse, brutality, and neglect,” stated the Nationwide Immigration Undertaking, which cited comparable claims going again a decade. When detained individuals on the time introduced situations to workers’s consideration “and demanded edible and never rotten meals, they have been brutalized with violence, together with pepper spray and bodily violence from workers.”
📍 𝐅𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐕𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐄, 𝐕𝐈𝐑𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐀:@beyer.home.gov is sounding the alarm after experiences that detainees on the Farmville Detention Heart have been served rotten meals with worms and confronted retaliation once they complained. He’s demanding fast federal motion. #AbuseofPowerWatch
— Abuse of Energy Watch (@abuseofpowerwatch.bsky.social) 2025-10-30T14:52:15.982Z
NOVEMBER 2025
The family members of Randall Alberto Gamboa Esquivel condemned his remedy beneath ICE custody as negligent and inhumane, after he fell right into a vegetative state whereas in ICE custody and finally died. Gamboa Esquivel, 52, had initially been in frequent contact along with his household however then seemingly vanished for months. They have been solely advised that he was not nicely. The Guardian reported that by the point they managed to find him, he was “bedridden in a vegetative state, and his household’s lawyer started the method of getting him despatched to Costa Rica,” the place he died.
📍 𝐓𝐄𝐗𝐀𝐒:Randall Alberto Gamboa Esquivel, a 52-year-old man deported by ICE in a vegetative state following months in U.S. custody, died on October 26 after returning to Costa Rica. His household accuses the company of negligence and inhumane remedy. #AbuseofPowerWatch
— Abuse of Energy Watch (@abuseofpowerwatch.bsky.social) 2025-11-04T18:57:43.606Z
DECEMBER 2025
Elaine Miles, a Native American tribal member and “Northern Publicity” actor, was on her option to a bus cease when she was focused by mass deportation brokers, who accused her of faking her paperwork. “She supplied them her ID card from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon however was advised by an ICE agent that ‘anybody could make that,’” The Guardian reported. When Miles then tried to name the quantity on the again of the cardboard to show her standing, an agent tried to grab away her cellphone. “What we’re speaking about right here is racial profiling,” stated one indigenous rights lawyer.
📍 𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐃, 𝐖𝐀:Elaine Miles, a Native American actor, says she was stopped by ICE whereas strolling to a bus cease — brokers dismissed her legally issued tribal ID as “faux,” refused to confirm it, tried to take her cellphone, and solely launched her after she was detained. #AbuseOfPowerWatch
— Abuse of Energy Watch (@abuseofpowerwatch.bsky.social) 2025-12-01T18:28:01.861Z
JANUARY 2026
Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) launched a horrific report exposing “greater than a thousand credible experiences of human rights abuses” in immigration detention facilities, together with “medical neglect, bodily and sexual abuse, denial of enough meals and water, and the mistreatment of kids and pregnant girls.” Credible experiences of human rights abuses obtained or recognized by his workplace included 44 experiences of ladies separated from their youngsters, together with breastfeeding infants; 26 credible experiences of mistreatment of pregnant girls; and 40 credible experiences of mistreatment of kids. The allegations “reveal an plain sample of human rights abuse in immigration detention,” Ossoff stated.
📍 𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋:A report from Sen. @ossoff.senate.gov has uncovered over 1,000 credible experiences of abuses in ICE and broader immigration detention services — together with medical neglect, denial of meals and water, mistreatment of kids and pregnant girls, and bodily/sexual abuse. #AbuseOfPowerWatch
— Abuse of Energy Watch (@abuseofpowerwatch.bsky.social) 2026-01-28T16:03:25.998Z
FEBRUARY 2026
Individuals discovered that ICE’s involvement within the deadly taking pictures of U.S. citizen Ruben Ray Martinez had been saved a secret from the general public for almost a yr. “Native media had reported on the taking pictures nevertheless it was not clear till this week that federal immigration officers have been concerned,” The Texas Tribune reported. ICE shot and killed Martinez, 25, throughout a visitors cease and accused him of attempting to run over an agent along with his automotive. Nevertheless, like in different circumstances the place federal immigration enforcement has falsely accused victims of weaponizing their autos, proof later disproved that declare.
📍 𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐓𝐇 𝐏𝐀𝐃𝐑𝐄 𝐈𝐒𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃, 𝐓𝐗:Data present an ICE agent fatally shot 23-year-old U.S. citizen Ruben Ray Martinez throughout a traffic-stop enforcement operation final March, a killing that was not publicly tied to ICE till almost a yr later. #AbuseOfPowerWatch
— Abuse of Energy Watch (@abuseofpowerwatch.bsky.social) 2026-02-23T15:23:43.166Z
MARCH 2026
ICE jailed a excessive schooler for almost a yr for merely attempting to observe the principles by attending his immigration appointment. Dylan Lopez Contreras was despatched to the abusive Moshannon Valley Processing Heart in Pennsylvania, the place he stated officers handled him and different detained immigrants like “criminals.” ICE additionally refused to ship a whole bunch of letters that supporters had written for the coed, in the end giving him simply three of them. He was lastly launched that very same month. Regardless of being separated from his household and mates for greater than 300 days, his fear was for others nonetheless in detention. “I nonetheless have so many mates inside,” he stated. “Now we have to proceed combating for them.”
📍 𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐘𝐎𝐑𝐊, 𝐍𝐘:ICE has now held a Bronx highschool scholar for greater than 10 months after arresting him at a routine immigration listening to — tearing him away from class, mates, and his schooling whereas he waits in detention. #AbuseOfPowerWatch
— Abuse of Energy Watch (@abuseofpowerwatch.bsky.social) 2026-03-02T21:18:03.119Z
APRIL 2026
Alejandro Cabrera Clemente, 49, grew to become the sixteenth particular person to die whereas in ICE custody this yr — and forty seventh particular person to die whereas in federal immigration custody throughout the second Trump administration. ABC Information reported that Cabrera Clemente was discovered unresponsive on the privately-operated Winn Correctional Heart in Louisiana, turning into the fifteenth Mexican nationwide to die whereas in ICE custody since final yr. In a blistering assertion, Mexico’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs blasted “severe deficiencies in ICE detention facilities,” calling them “incompatible with human rights requirements and the safety of life.”
📍 𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐈𝐒𝐈𝐀𝐍𝐀:A Mexican migrant has turn out to be the forty seventh particular person to die in ICE custody beneath the present administration, including to a quickly rising dying toll that displays worsening situations and oversight failures in detention services. #AbuseOfPowerWatch
— Abuse of Energy Watch (@abuseofpowerwatch.bsky.social) 2026-04-14T13:52:25.476Z
MAY 2026
U.S. citizen Kevin González made nationwide headlines when he pleaded for federal immigration officers to launch his detained dad and mom so he might say goodbye. Kevin, simply 18, was dying of stage 4 colon most cancers and had simply days left to reside. “I ask that [immigration authorities] assist me fulfill my final want, if doable,” stated the younger man, who was beneath care of his grandmother in Mexico. It took an order from a decide to win their launch, and the couple rapidly rushed to Mexico to reunite with their son. Kevin died simply in the future later.
📍 𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐆𝐎, 𝐈𝐋:An 18-year-old Chicago teen with terminal most cancers says his dying want is to see his dad and mom one final time — however each are being held in ICE detention, placing the household’s ultimate goodbye in jeopardy. #AbuseOfPowerWatch
— Abuse of Energy Watch (@abuseofpowerwatch.bsky.social) 2026-05-07T16:35:09.829Z
JUNE 2026
Nadir Hassan, a latest College at Buffalo graduate, was detained by ICE after touring to Texas for a scholar engineering competitors. Hassan had deliberate on returning dwelling to New York Metropolis after the American Society of Civil Engineers scholar metal bridge competitors, solely to search out himself focused by mass deportation brokers earlier than boarding his flight. College officers have been at a loss as to why. “UB has offered letters of assist from school, classmates, and scholar organizations whereas making an attempt to be taught extra about his case,” WGRZ reported.
📍 𝐄𝐋 𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐎, 𝐓𝐗:A latest College at Buffalo graduate was detained by ICE brokers whereas attempting to board a flight dwelling after taking part in a nationwide engineering competitors. Members of the family and college officers say they’ve obtained no clear rationalization for his detention. #AbuseOfPowerWatch
— Abuse of Energy Watch (@abuseofpowerwatch.bsky.social) 2026-06-01T14:07:02.254Z
JULY 2026
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a father of three U.S. residents, was killed throughout a visitors cease performed by ICE. He was on his option to his development enterprise in Houston when ICE brokers stopped him early one morning. Salgado Araujo was the tenth particular person to be fatally shot by ICE this yr. He’d referred to as the U.S. his dwelling for the previous 35 years, raised his three youngsters, and was actively working to acquire authorized standing. One in all his sons, Ronaldo, realized about his father’s dying via a distressing social media video. “I acknowledged him instantly— not by his look, however by the sound of his voice crying on the street as he was bleeding out,” Ronaldo stated.
📍 𝐓𝐄𝐗𝐀𝐒:Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was killed throughout an ICE encounter. Advocates and his household are calling for accountability and an unbiased investigation wanting into his dying. The case is including to rising scrutiny of deaths related to immigration enforcement operations. #AbuseOfPowerWatch
— Abuse of Energy Watch (@abuseofpowerwatch.bsky.social) 2026-07-08T13:54:45.989Z
However as we witness these horrors day after day, “we have now to protect our hearts and minds towards the normalization of cruelty and the tolerance of the insupportable,” as America’s Voice Government Director Vanessa Cárdenas lately wrote. “Now we have to make use of this second to prepare — whereas the nation continues to be watching, nonetheless uneasy, nonetheless keen to say sufficient.”
