After receiving “disturbing” allegations in opposition to Cincinnati ICE brokers, the Ohio Immigrant Alliance started its investigation. “What we discovered deeply alarmed us,” the group mentioned
The racist and violent historical past of the ICE agent that took the lifetime of Maine dad Johan Sebastián is disturbing – and “commonplace,” based on a devastating report from an Ohio-based immigrant rights advocacy group that examined the prison background of practically 60 mass deportation officers going again twenty years to the current day.
“After noticing a disturbing pattern of Cincinnati ICE brokers committing sexual or violent offenses in opposition to girls, the Ohio Immigrant Alliance started trying deeper into the prison backgrounds of different brokers. What we discovered deeply alarmed us,” the group mentioned within the report. It discovered that of the 59 brokers recognized by Ohio Immigrant Alliance, 85% p.c had been charged with or convicted of intercourse offenses, with practically two-thirds concentrating on youngsters.
“Of the 59 people, 50 (84.7%) have been charged with or convicted of intercourse offenses, and 37 (62.7%) dedicated crimes concentrating on youngsters. Taken collectively, 35 people (59.3%) dedicated intercourse offenses in opposition to youngsters — the one largest class on the checklist,” the report mentioned. Mass deportation brokers employed by each Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Safety (CBP) generally abused their authority so as “to commit, conceal, or contribute to their crimes,” the report continued.
‘THE MAN HUNTING PREDATORS WAS ONE HIMSELF’
Starting in late 2024, “Ramon Marquez, a CBP agent in Arizona, exploited his position overseeing the Border Patrol Explorer Program — a youth exercise — to sexually abuse a minor participant. Investigators discovered that incidents occurred at his house, Explorer actions, out-of-town journeys, and even Border Patrol services. He had additionally inappropriately texted one other baby in this system.”
The abuses stretch again years. In 2005, ICE official Frank Figueroa “was caught on video exposing himself to a 16-year-old woman at a mall meals courtroom,” the report continued. “The bitter irony: Figueroa was previously in command of Operation Predator, the ICE program that deported people convicted of intercourse crimes. The person searching predators was one himself.” Figueroa was in the end slapped on the wrist and allowed to retire along with his full pension.
VIOLENT BEHAVIOR SHOULD BE A DEALBREAKER
Whereas the administration has been haphazardly recruiting a military of unqualified brokers to hold out its mass deportation obsessions – the reported agent who killed Johan Sebastián was employed simply final 12 months – the report reveals that it’s not solely a matter of unvetted hires, but in addition a poisonous work tradition the place predatory, violent habits is seemingly not a dealbreaker. Most of the brokers detailed within the report “remained employed for many years at ICE or the Border Patrol regardless of purple flags.”
“Dana Ray Thornhill was first arrested for sexual assault of a kid on the age of 13 and served time within the Arizona Division of Juvenile Corrections.” However that historical past didn’t preclude him from being employed by the federal authorities. “Regardless of this, he was employed by the Border Patrol and labored there for practically 20 years earlier than being caught once more for baby molestation and sexual exploitation of minors.”
‘NO WAY’ THAT ICE DIDN’T KNOW IT HAD A SERIAL ABUSER IN ITS RANKS
In one other notable case that has been within the headlines all through the previous months, native police have been known as to the house of 20-year ICE veteran Samuel Saxon practically two dozen occasions attributable to home violence incidents within the 18 months previous to his 2025 arrest and indictments, the report mentioned.
All through that point, he had strangled his associate “a number of occasions and damaged her nostril and her pelvis, an harm that required surgical procedure.” Through the remaining time that police have been known as to the couple’s house, the arrival officers “noticed bruises on the girl’s chest which might be according to being forcibly grabbed by the chest and neck,” WCPO reported final 12 months. They have been known as when a neighbor witnessed Saxon grabbing a lady by her neck and dragging her into an residence.
There’s merely “no approach” that ICE management didn’t understand it had a serial abuser in its ranks, mentioned Ohio Immigrant Alliance Government Director Lynn Tramonte.
“His sufferer had damaged bones that required surgical procedure,” Tramonte mentioned. “The police got here to his house 23 occasions in lower than a 12 months and a half. He had a DUI. One among his bosses even known as the police to do a welfare examine when he didn’t present up for work, they usually discovered him holding a knife. His supervisor admitted he was a ‘unfastened cannon.’ This went on for years, ICE knew about it, they usually stored selling Saxon as an alternative of firing him. That’s not how a legislation enforcement company ought to function.”
In April, Saxon additionally pleaded responsible to mendacity to the DHS watchdog in relation to the home abuse prices. That ought to come at no shock, contemplating how usually brokers have lied and mentioned that victims like Renee Good and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo weaponized their vehicles in opposition to them, solely to have these claims completely collapse.
IT’S NOT JUST ICE
And whereas ICE regularly occupies the information headlines attributable to its horrific public shows of bloody violence inside our communities, CBP accounts for practically three-quarters of all instances within the report. “Each businesses present excessive charges of intercourse offenses (CBP: 86%, ICE: 81%), however ICE instances usually tend to contain underage victims — 69% of ICE instances contain youngsters, in comparison with 62% for CBP.”
Earlier analysis from the Southern Border Communities Coalition has discovered what it calls a “tradition of abuse” at CBP. “In 2019, researchers estimated that CBP officers are 5 occasions extra possible to be arrested than native and state legislation enforcement personnel,” Southern Border Communities Coalition famous. “CBP personel have been arrested for corruption, sexual assault, aggravated assault, home violence, and intercourse crimes in opposition to youngsters.”
CONTINUED DEATHS HIGHLIGHT URGENT NEED FOR ACCOUNTABILITY
These studies ought to stay high of thoughts as outraged Individuals proceed to demand justice and accountability following 4 immigration-related deaths within the span of only one week this month. One of many 4 victims, Jesús Manuel Arenas-Silva, died on the identical day as Johan Sebastián after struggling a deadly cardiac occasion whereas being transferred between camps in Georgia.
This lethal disaster of individuals dying beneath our immigration system is systemic. Simply this week, a court-appointed physician issued a searing evaluate of “nightmarish” medical failures at a detention facility in California.
“The exponential progress of deaths in so-called ‘civil’ immigration jail, and the opening up of a brand new killing discipline — the deaths of civilians on U.S. streets — is straight associated to the elements we define in our report,” Tramonte continued in an announcement acquired by America’s Voice. “ICE and border brokers ought to by no means be given weapons and free rein to roam U.S. communities. Their job is to implement civil legal guidelines, however they act like they dwell within the wild west, killing individuals in our streets. Congress has to cease writing clean checks to those businesses and begin imposing order and accountability.”
