Raids Aren’t a Plan

As I’m writing this, news has come out that a second U.S citizen has been killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis.

What we’re witnessing in Minnesota is not a local story or a one-off flare-up. The tensions are the culmination of a broader pattern from an administration that is more interested in generating chaos than governing. And as disruption becomes the strategy, it’s ordinary people who are paying the price.

What’s happening?

This administration is using immigration enforcement as a lever to inject fear into American cities, keeping communities on edge and creating the impression that chaos is inevitable and that extreme measures are the only answer.

This is not happening by accident. It’s happening through an immigration apparatus that is massive, well-funded, and capable of mobilizing quickly. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act allocates more than $170 billion over four years for border and interior enforcement, with a stated goal of deporting 1 million immigrants each year. If compared to international military forces, ICE’s new budget would rank it among the top-funded 15 militaries in the world.

So far, federal officials have been deployed to at least 10 cities, including Minneapolis, Chicago, Portland, New Orleans, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Charlotte, and Memphis. The administration claims these efforts are restoring law and order. But what the public is seeing in real time is something else: escalation, confusion, and a growing list of incidents where force is used recklessly, mistakes are made, and ordinary people are caught in the middle.

Here’s a small sample of headlines showing what the administration’s enforcement approach has looked like in practice:

• Judge orders restrictions on federal tactics against ICE protestors after Chicago-area pastor shot with pepper balls

• ICE released tear gas under family vehicle with 6 children inside

• Border patrol caught on camera detaining man who says he’s a U.S. citizen after they rushed into local pharmacy

• ICE agents drew guns on off-duty officer in Minnesota, chief says

• [2025 was] the deadliest year for people in ICE custody in decades

• Army vet detained by ICE for 8 hours says he wasn’t allowed to call an attorney

• ICE detains four Minnesota children including five year-old, school officials say

And while these raids on American cities are frightening on their own, they’re simply the most visible layer of a deeper cruelty that lies at the heart of this administration’s immigration strategy.

Raids are the headline, but detention and deportation are the system underneath it.

Latest statistics from the Department of Homeland Security show that there are nearly 69,000 people currently being detained and there have been over 352,000 arrests and deportations since this administration came to power. Immigrants with no criminal record continue to make up the largest group in detention facilities, despite constant claims that enforcement is focused on “the worst of the worst” criminals.

To facilitate this mass detention and deportation effort, the administration hasn’t simply increased its enforcement presence, it has expanded how far it’s willing to go to remove people quickly, quietly, and with as little resistance as possible. We’re seeing a strategy that doesn’t just rely on raids and arrests, but on pushing human beings through an accelerated pipeline designed to minimize due process and maximize fear.

This strategy has led to extreme measures, including opening a temporary holding facility in Guantanamo Bay and efforts to deport people into third countries or prison systems far from any legal support or public visibility - places where accountability becomes harder, conditions become more opaque, and basic dignity becomes an afterthought. Human beings are being moved like cargo through a system designed to avoid scrutiny.

Centering detention and deportation as the “solution” for immigration has made enforcement both inhumane and fundamentally broken. It has swept up the wrong people. It has pressured people into giving up valid claims just to escape confinement. It has separated families as a matter of routine.

Now, if this were all part of a serious governing effort, the collection of all these incidents would trigger transparency, restraint, and accountability. We would hear leaders admit what went wrong, explain how it will be prevented in the future, and commit to new guardrails that protect the public.

Instead, we’re told to accept the unacceptable.

Even as horrifying stories are told, recordings are posted for the world to see, and lawsuits are pursued, the response is not reflection but deflection. It’s officials insisting on broad immunity for federal agents, brushing off harm as collateral, and treating public outrage as an obstacle, not a warning sign. And in the face of fear, injury, and disruption, we’re getting propaganda posted with the confidence of people who celebrate their tactics of intimidation.

This isn’t accountability. It’s cruelty with a communications strategy.

What’s the defense for this approach?

There are some who will argue that all of this is somehow necessary - that it’s not that different from what previous administrations have done, that it will deter future wrongdoing, or that there’s nothing to fear if you didn’t do anything wrong. But when you hold these defenses up against reality - against how enforcement is actually being carried out and what the consequences are - they fall apart. Not just morally, but practically.

“This isn’t that different from what previous administrations have done.”

Previous administrations have absolutely deported people. President Obama was even dubbed the “Deporter in Chief” by immigrant rights advocates after deporting over 5.3 million immigrants during his two terms. The Biden administration holds the record for most immigrants deported during a single 4-year term with nearly 4.7 million immigrants removed.

But this current administration’s approach is different in kind, not just degree. What separates this moment isn’t simply the goal of increased deportation and detention. It’s the choices being made along the way: using raids as public spectacle, expanding detention as a default, threatening removals to countries people didn’t even come from, eroding due process, and escalating tactics in ways that sweep up innocent people and destabilize communities.

This isn’t just enforcement. It’s intimidation backed by an immigration apparatus large enough to make the chaos feel routine.

“This will deter illegal immigration and encourage people to come here legally.”

A real deterrent isn’t cruelty where even innocent people can be swept into harm. It’s a system that presents a viable, legal alternative that cannot be ignored.

A chaotic raid-and-detention strategy doesn’t encourage people to come here legally instead when the legal pathways are still limited, backlogged, or out of reach for the people who need them. If the goal is fewer unlawful crossings and fewer people living in limbo, the answer isn’t creating an atmosphere so hostile that people fear coming here. The solution lies in a functioning immigration system with clear rules, workable legal pathways, targeted enforcement focused on real threats, and a process that’s fast enough to be credible and fair enough to be legitimate.

“If you didn’t do anything wrong, you have nothing to fear.”

This assumes that enforcement is always precise. It assumes mistakes don’t happen. It assumes people are always correctly identified, treated fairly, and given a real chance to explain themselves. We’ve seen each of these assumptions fail in practice in this administration’s execution. Instead, we’ve seen an approach that’s aggressive, rushed, and hostile to due process - a strategy that only increases the margin for error.

Even if you believe in strong enforcement, “nothing to fear” must never be our standard of success. In our country, our rights aren’t conditional. Dignity isn’t conditional. And freedom isn’t something you earn by staying quiet and staying out of the way.

And once a government starts acting like fear is acceptable for the “right people,” it doesn’t stay neatly contained. It spreads outward. It makes communities less safe, less trusting, and less willing to engage with institutions at all.

There’s a better way to do this - a strategy that can protect dignity without sacrificing order.

What can “better” look like?

Enforcement should be targeted, accountable, and humane.

Targeted

Targeted enforcement means focusing immigration resources where they actually matter - on genuine threats to public safety, repeat serious offenders, and organized criminal networks that traffic and exploit human beings.

It also means restoring order at the border in ways that are real and sustainable, not relying on chaos and pretending cruelty is the same thing as control. We can modernize ports of entry with better staffing, smarter screening, and updated infrastructure that strengthens security so that legal travel and trade move efficiently while illicit activity is easier to detect.

Targeted enforcement isn’t softer. It’s sharper. And it’s how you protect public safety without treating entire communities like suspects.

Accountable

Accountable enforcement means the government can explain what it’s doing, why it’s doing it, and what happens when it gets wrong. The rules must apply to everyone, including the people wearing the badge.

Accountability starts with taking a hard look at ICE itself. We must not accept an enforcement agency that operates in the shadows with agents wearing masks, refusing to show identification, and acting like the public has no right to know who is policing their streets. If mistakes are made - if people are harmed - there must be transparency, independent review, and real consequences.

Humane

Humane enforcement means refusing to treat suffering as a feature instead of a failure. It means detention is not the default. It means families are not separated as a pressure tactic. It means we do not outsource accountability by moving people into distant facilities where legal support disappears, conditions become opaque, and the public is expected to stop asking questions.

But enforcement alone will never fully fix the system.

Even if enforcement were carried out perfectly, it cannot alone solve a problem that is fundamentally structural. People don’t come here because of a lack of punishment. They come because of danger, family ties, and better economic opportunity. And some even resort to entering illegally because our legal immigration system is often too slow, backlogged, and disconnected from the urgency of their reality.

If we want fewer people crossing unlawfully, then we need to build something that the current administration refuses to offer: a functioning system that:

• Partners with other countries to share more intelligence and increase enforcement efforts to crack down on smugglers, traffickers, and other criminal organizations

• Reduces backlogs and delays by hiring more asylum officers and immigration judges

• Expands legal immigration pathways for workers and students

• Protects the victims of persecution while ending the misuse of the asylum system

A better way forward must also be honest about the reality of the millions of people already here without legal status. Pretending they can - or should - be rounded up and removed overnight is neither humane nor practical. We’ve seen what that mindset produces: families torn apart, courts overwhelmed, and employers and local economies punished.

The answer isn’t amnesty without expectations or permanent limbo. An earned path to citizenship should require criminal and national security background checks, proof of continuous presence in the country, demonstrated financial self-sufficiency, and the payment of any taxes owed along with a required fine. It isn’t about lowering standards - it’s about establishing a structure that recognizes the value of people who are already woven into the fabric of our communities.

We must reject a politics that thrives on chaos and turns us against our neighbors. We must instead rebuild a system that is lawful, functional, and worthy of a nation that claims to believe in the dignity of all people.