In the States: Trump’s Deportation Machine Targets Workers, Families, and Long-Settled Advocates in Reckless Raids

Washington, D.C. – As Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda escalates—workers, legal residents, and longtime community members continue to be targeted. These raids continue to reveal the truth: Trump’s immigration policy is cruel, chaotic, and indiscriminate. Now, with a 1798 wartime law in his back pocket and a pending $350 billion check from Congress, Trump is set to supercharge these efforts through militarized enforcement, invasive surveillance, and government overreach–all at the expense of civil rights and working families.

From Colorado to Louisiana, immigrants with deep ties to their communities have been swept up in Trump’s escalating crackdown. Jeanette Vizguerra, a nationally recognized immigrant rights activist, was arrested by ICE at her workplace despite being in the process of securing lawful status, prompting condemnation from Denver officials. In Puerto Rico, a U.S. citizen’s wife was detained at the airport and transferred to an ICE facility despite an active application for lawful status. In Chicago, a new lawsuit alleges ICE violated a court settlement by unlawfully arresting at least 22 people across the Midwest. Meanwhile, 48 people remain unaccounted for after ICE raids in New Mexico, and families in Louisiana report being lured into deportation under false pretenses. 

Read more about the everyday Americans affected by Trump’s anti-immigrant assault:

Denver Sentinel: ICE arrest of immigrant activist Jeanette Vizguerra draws sharp rebukes from Colorado officials, activists (March 18, 2025; Denver, CO)

Mexican immigrant Jeanette Vizguerra, who gained national prominence after she took refuge in churches in Colorado to avoid deportation during the first Trump administration, is being detained at an Aurora ICE detention facility, immigration advocates and her lawyers said Tuesday.

“Let’s be clear about what happened today. This is not immigration enforcement intended to keep our country safe,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said in a statement. “This is Putin-style persecution of political dissidents. Jeanette Vizguerra is a mother of U.S. citizens. She works at Target. She’s the founder of a local non-profit. This is not about safety. This is about political theater and political retribution.”

Fox Los Angeles: Southern California couple deported after 35 years in US (March 21, 2025; Los Angeles, CA)

Gladys and Nelson Gonzalez of Laguna Niguel were detained on Feb. 21 during a routine immigration check-in as part of ongoing nationwide mass deportation efforts. 

While Gladys was initially granted an extension, hours later, a different agent arrested both her and Nelson. 

“This official was cruel,” said Stephanie, one of their three daughters. “They arrested my dad first and then called my mom in and arrested her too.”

Newsweek: Ford Worker Detained by ICE Faces Death by Torture, Wife Fears (March 19, 2025; Spokane, Washington)

Alberto Lovo Rojas, a Nicaraguan who has lived in Spokane, Washington, since 2020, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on February 8, 2025, while on his way to get a haircut when three unmarked cars surrounded him. He is currently being held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma.

His wife, Dora Yisel Morales Diaz, told Newsweek in an exclusive statement that she feels “traumatized” as he faces torture if he is removed from the U.S.

“If my husband is deported, his life is at risk of being tortured to death. My husband only has one kidney and no spleen. He would not survive the torture or mistreatment meted out to government opponents,” Yisel said.

Pennsylvania Capital Star: Elected leaders seek answers following ICE detention of five men in Dauphin County (March 18, 2025; Harrisburg, PA)

Dauphin County Commission chair Justin Douglas said the Bhutanese Nepali residents were green card holders and legal permanent residents. He added it’s unknown if any are being charged with crimes. Four of them, he said, have children.

“Five men – fathers, husbands, neighbors – are being taken from our community,” Douglas said.  “All of them have families. They work here, they pay taxes here, they raise their kids here. They are part of the fabric of this region, and now they are being detained and ripped away from everything and everyone they know. These are people our country made a promise to.”

USA Today: He voted for Trump. Now his wife sits in an ICE detention center (March 17, 2025; Wisconsin)

Bradley Bartell and Camila Muñoz had a familiar small-town love story, before they collided with immigration politics. They met through mutual friends, had a first date at the local steakhouse, married after two years and were saving to buy a house and have kids. Muñoz was already caring for Bartell’s now 12-year-old son as her own.

But last month, on their way home to Wisconsin after honeymooning in Puerto Rico, an immigration agent pulled Muñoz aside in the airport. In addition to Muñoz, USA TODAY has confirmed through attorneys, family members and documents that ICE has detained for weeks:

• A woman in her 50s who has lived in the country more than 30 years and is married to a U.S. citizen.

• A woman in her 30s with proof of valid permanent legal residency, whose father and siblings are U.S. citizens, and who first came to the U.S. as a teen.

• A European woman in her 30s engaged to a U.S. citizen who overstayed her visa when she was 21.

• A woman engaged to a U.S. legal permanent resident, with whom she has lived for nine years.

Reuters: US seeks to deport pro-Palestinian Georgetown University student (March 20, 2025; Washington, DC.)

Suri is a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown’s Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, which is part of the university’s School of Foreign Service. His arrest was first reported by Politico.

“If an accomplished scholar who focuses on conflict resolution is whom the government decides is bad for foreign policy, then perhaps the problem is with the government, not the scholar,” Suri’s lawyer said in an email.

Block Club Chicago: ICE Illegally Arrested 22 People In The Midwest Since Trump Took Office, New Lawsuit Alleges (March 17, 2025; Chicago, IL)

Immigration and civil liberties advocates based in Chicago are suing federal authorities over the arrests of 22 people in the Midwest – including one U.S. citizen – since President Donald Trump took office.

Abel Orozco Ortega, a 40-year-old man from suburban Lyons, was arrested Jan. 26 by ICE after immigration authorities stopped him as he returned from buying food for his family. Fleming said ICE officers asked for Orozco Ortega’s driver’s license, pulled him from his car and arrested him while searching for one of Orozco Ortega’s sons, who has the same name.

New York Magazine: Why Are Visa and Green-Card Holders Being Detained and Deported? (March 18, 2025) 

Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University graduate student from India, was detained by federal immigration agents at his home in Virginia, according to Politico.

Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a 34-year-old kidney-transplant specialist at Brown University medical school with a valid visa, was deported on Saturday despite a court order temporarily blocking her deportation. Alawieh is a Lebanese citizen who was detained at Boston Logan International Airport on Thursday after returning to the U.S. from her native Lebanon.

Fabian Schmidt, a 34-year-old electrical engineer with a green card who lives in New Hampshire, was detained on March 7 when he flew into Logan airport in Boston after a trip to Europe. His mother alleges that he was “violently interrogated” for hours at the airport, pressured to give up his green card, and briefly hospitalized after collapsing.

ProPublica: Some Americans Have Already Been Caught in Trump’s Immigration Dragnet. More Will Be. (March 18, 2025)

About a week after President Donald Trump took office, Jonathan Guerrero was sitting at the Philadelphia car wash where he works when immigration agents burst in.

The agents didn’t say why they were there and didn’t show their badges, Guerrero recalled. So the 21-year-old didn’t get a chance to explain that although his parents were from Mexico, he had been born right there in Philadelphia.

“They looked at me and made me put my hands up without letting me explain that I’m from here,” Guerrero said.

NBC: Lawyers and advocates say 48 people are unaccounted for after ICE raid in New Mexico (March 17, 2025; New Mexico)

The people were “snatched up” in Santa Fe, Roswell and Albuquerque, and ACLU and other organizations have been unable to locate them since the weeklong raids ended March 8, said Rebecca Sheff, senior staff attorney at the ACLU New Mexico.

“We don’t have anybody and that’s exactly the concerns, that they’ve been effectively ‘disappeared.’ We have yet to learn any of their identities or whereabouts or the authorities under which they were held or conditions of their detention. We don’t know if they’ve already been deported,” Sheff said.

WSDU News: ICE raid nets 11 arrests at Port of Lake Charles (March 17, 2025; Lake Charles, LA)

The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced arrests of workers lacking permanent legal status in Lake Charles.

On Thursday, ICE conducted a worksite enforcement operation where 11 people were arrested at the Port of Lake Charles.

CBS News Bay Area: Sonoma County activists speak out after ICE arrest at probation department (March 16, 2025; Sonoma County, CA)

Sonoma County officials said last Thursday a plain-clothed ICE agent entered the probation department and detained a person who was just released from the Sonoma County Jail. Officials added that the person was reporting to the probation officers with a court order before ICE came in and arrested them.

“When there’s ICE presence in a county building, especially when it’s court ordered to be somewhere, that’s going to create fear. That’s going to create a lack of trust, and otherwise abiding citizens who want to follow court orders are not going to follow the court orders,” Bernice Espinoza, a removal defense attorney with Sonoma Immigrant Services, told CBS News Bay Area.

Guardian: Canadian actor detained at US border in ‘inhumane conditions’ for nearly two weeks (March 19, 2025; San Diego, California)

A Canadian entrepreneur and actor in the American Pie movie franchise said she was detained for almost two weeks in “inhumane” conditions by US border authorities over an incomplete visa.

“I have never in my life seen anything so inhumane,” she said. “I was put in a cell, and I had to sleep on a mat with no blanket, no pillow, with an aluminum foil wrapped over my body like a dead body for two and a half days.”

Fortune: Colombian immigrant couple planning their wedding showed up for a routine ICE check-in and one was deported (March 14, 2025; Iowa)

When a couple from Colombia who was planning their wedding showed up for a check-in with U.S. immigration authorities, one was given his next appointment date. The other was detained and deported.

Jhojan doesn’t know why Felipe was detained at the Feb. 5 appointment with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. But Jhojan was so worried after Felipe’s deportation that he didn’t show up for his next check-in a month later. Jhojan insisted The Associated Press withhold the couple’s last names, fearing retribution.

Louisiana Illuminator: ‘They lied to us from the beginning’: Deported Louisiana family says ICE lured them with ruse (March 14, 2025; New Oreans, LA)

Earlier that day, she, her mother Claudia Hernandez and younger brother Jason met with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents near their home in Metairie, where they were told they were going to Houston for a hearing in immigration court, Stephanie said.

But instead of escorting them out of the airport when they deplaned in Houston, agents walked them to another gate, according to Stephanie. The flight display said “McAllen” – a Texas city close to the Mexican border.

“I was so scared,” Stephanie said in a phone interview with Verite News from her aunt’s home in San Pedro Sula, a city in northwestern Honduras. “Even just to think of it right now, I start to cry because it’s so horrible.”

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