The Trump administration’s continued immigration crackdown is being justified in the name of public safety and national security. But a closer look reveals a campaign not rooted in law or justice — but in fear, racial profiling and political theater. This approach has torn families apart, criminalized protest, chilled civic engagement and harmed both immigrants and citizens alike, all while delivering few measurable public safety benefits.
Leaked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data recently obtained by Reuters paints a stark picture. According to unpublished statistics, only one-third of the 177,000 individuals arrested and booked into detention by ICE between October 2024 and May 2025 had any criminal convictions at all.
Of those with convictions, roughly 39 percent were for minor infractions such as traffic offenses or immigration-related violations like illegal reentry. This means that the majority of people swept up in this vast enforcement apparatus had no criminal record whatsoever.
These figures cast serious doubt on the administration’s claim that the crackdowns are narrowly targeted at dangerous individuals. Instead, the numbers suggest a policy designed to detain as many people as possible, regardless of their threat level or immigration history. The implications are alarming: the federal government is jailing people — including longtime residents, workers, parents and U.S. citizens — not because they are a danger to society, but because they are seen as politically expedient targets in a broader culture war.
The chilling effects of this policy are being felt across the country, but perhaps nowhere more viscerally than in California, where federal enforcement actions have become increasingly aggressive — and indiscriminate.
In Los Angeles earlier this month, federal prosecutors charged 30-year-old protester Jose Manuel Mojica with assaulting officers during one of the first major demonstrations against immigration raids.
ICE posted Mojica’s photograph on social media and accused him of violent conduct. But last week, federal prosecutors dropped the charges — without explanation — following the release of cellphone footage and eyewitness accounts that told a very different story.
Mojica, a father of four and lifelong Angeleno, said he had stepped in to de-escalate a confrontation after federal agents were seen forcefully shoving protesters. He described being choked, beaten and slammed into the pavement by officers while trying to prevent others from retaliating.
“I thought I was going to die at that moment and never get up from the ground and see my kids again,” Mojica told The Guardian. “I couldn’t breathe.” Photos taken days later showed bruises across his body and a large contusion on his nose.
Rather than a violent instigator, Mojica appears to have been one of many peaceful protesters caught in a net of state violence and overreach. Civil rights attorneys reviewing the cases of several protesters arrested alongside Mojica say the prosecutions appear to be politically motivated, misrepresenting events and criminalizing protected First Amendment activity.
And Mojica’s case is not unique. ICE has recently taken aim at elected officials, journalists and ordinary citizens who dare to stand in solidarity with immigrant communities.
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was physically dragged and handcuffed by ICE agents while attending proceedings at a Manhattan immigration courthouse — his apparent offense: trying to accompany a man past federal agents as a show of support.
As of this writing, Lander has not been charged, despite claims by the Department of Homeland Security that he assaulted an officer. Videos from the courthouse show Lander simply standing beside a migrant man when officers in plain clothes suddenly intervened.
Similar incidents have targeted Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Rep. LaMonica McIver and Sen. Alex Padilla, all of whom were forcibly removed from immigration facilities or press events by federal agents in recent weeks. These confrontations underscore the increasingly authoritarian posture of federal immigration enforcement under Trump, where public officials themselves are not immune from intimidation or retaliation.
Even American citizens of Latino descent are finding themselves subject to arbitrary detention and questioning. In Montebello, Calif., Border Patrol agents recently stormed a car lot and began detaining workers, demanding proof of citizenship. One agent twisted the arm of Jason Brian Gavidia, a 29-year-old mechanic born in East Los Angeles, and asked him, “What hospital were you born at?”
When Gavidia couldn’t name the facility, the agent doubted his citizenship. “I’m an American, bro!” Gavidia shouted. He was eventually released, but his co-worker Javier Ramirez, also a U.S. citizen, was taken to a detention center and remains in custody without contact from legal counsel.
These incidents raise profound questions about the legality, ethics and efficacy of Trump’s immigration policy. When citizens are harassed, when elected officials are manhandled, and when peaceful protesters are falsely accused and jailed, what remains of our commitment to civil liberties and the rule of law?
The economic consequences are also becoming clearer. A recent UCLA Anderson Forecast warns that deportations and immigration raids are undermining California’s economy. The report describes widespread “decision paralysis” in key sectors such as construction, hospitality, food processing and agriculture.
Workers are afraid to show up. Employers are unsure whether their labor force will be intact next week. Consumers are delaying purchases out of fear. According to economist Jerry Nickelsburg, “confusion and uncertainty” about immigration enforcement are disrupting investment, employment and household spending, slowing growth across the state.
This is the hidden cost of governing by fear — not just to our economy, but to our collective spirit and sense of justice.
We’ve seen this pattern before. From Japanese American internment during World War II to the Red Scare of the McCarthy era to the post-9/11 surveillance of Muslim communities, America has repeatedly betrayed its core values in moments of national anxiety. History has not looked kindly on those chapters — and it will not look kindly on this one either.
President Trump may claim he is restoring law and order. But the data, the stories and the economic impact tell a different truth. His immigration crackdown is not about security. It is about using state power to instill fear, silence dissent and project control over marginalized communities.
If we are to remain a nation of laws, we must reject policies that violate due process, undermine human rights and criminalize solidarity. The time to act is now — before the damage becomes irreversible, and before the values we claim to uphold are rendered meaningless.
“The time to act is now”
What are you proposing? How do you want people to act?
You would just tell ICE or Trump
As I recall, Trump ran on a campaign of deporting a significant number of those in the country illegally – not just those who committed serious crimes. (But that he’d “start” with the latter.)
The fact that there’s something like 11 million people in the country illegally IS the problem that helped Trump get elected. Of course, the fact that there’s significant numbers of Americans who support illegal immigration is the other problem that Trump is facing (including from some of his supporters/employers who take advantage of the situation). It was interesting to see Trump starting to back down from this, as a result (e.g., from farmers, hotel owners, etc.).
No mention of how the 9th Circuit Court (hardly conservative) for now has upheld Trump’s right to send in the California National Guard during the L.A. riots?