Afrasianet - Abd Al Hamid Siam - One of the strange times in which we live in the era of US President Donald Trump in his second term is that the foreign thuggery, whose news fills the global media and occupies the largest share of newspaper headlines, news bulletins and social media sites, is accompanied by domestic thuggery that is no less vicious, violent and violates the most basic human rights, involving the 50 states and their victims are the vast majority of immigrants, asylum seekers and green card holders or are about to receive them after they have passed all the procedures.
But the difference between the two cases This internal war, which was launched by Trump and recruited tens of thousands of security services, police, border guards, national guards, intelligence, intelligence gathering and espionage, is rarely reported by the international media.
Many of these crimes are committed in the dark in the absence of the media, and detainees are dumped in horrific detention centers where violence is used in the most horrific forms, and many are deported to a third country that holds them in detention or sends them home, with nothing but clothes that barely cover their exhausted bodies.
While Trump has launched wars, skirmishes and military interventions in the Caribbean, Venezuela, Iran, the Persian Gulf, Lebanon, northern Nigeria, and soon Cuba, and possibly Bolivia and Colombia, he has declared war The United States has never seen an immigrant country, and this is the case with Trump and many members of his administration.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
Trump created a veritable Immigration and Customs Enforcement militia and gave it powers that go beyond all laws, whether by way of arrests, overnight raids, or the use of violence.
The hardline practices of federal immigration agents in Minnesota and other cities across the country have highlighted an important fact: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and CBP agents which include U.S. border patrols, regularly and blatantly exceeds the powers granted to them by law.
Their violent field tactics are based on unprecedented interpretations of their legal powers, as these agencies secretly adopt draconian new policies regarding home break-ins and warrantless arrests.
In some cases, the Trump administration has exploited broadly worded federal legal provisions, which the administration claims to give immigration agents broad powers — contrary to common sense about permissible practices.
In other cases, agency directives combined with a lack of accountability to undermine the rule of law, allowing immigration officials to commit widespread abuses.
First: Arrests and Violence
In June 2025, just a few weeks after White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller summoned the heads of all ICE field offices to a meeting in Washington, D.C., where he ordered them to "simply go out and arrest illegal aliens" (reportedly frustrated by the agency's slow pace of arrests), the Trump administration launched its first raucous raid campaign in Los Angeles, California, where it sent hundreds of agents By the height of Trump's mass deportations in January 2026 — specifically during the infamous "Metro Surge Operation" in Minneapolis — the agency's arrest statistics were drastically different from a year earlier.
Over the course of the fall through winter, most of the agency's daily arrests took place in public and open spaces within American communities – including raids in Chicago, Portland, New Orleans, Charlotte, and Minneapolis. From December 2025 to January 2026, the agency averaged 1,264 people arrested per day, an increase of more than 300 percent compared to the previous year.
Minnesota IncidentOn January 24, 2026, Alex Jeffrey Pretty, 37, an American nurse in the intensive care unit working for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, was killed after being shot multiple times by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The incident took place amid widespread protests against Operation Metro Serge, particularly in the wake of the killing of migrant René Judd on January 7 by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.
Preeti was filming law enforcement officers with his phone and regulating traffic. At one point, standing between an officer and a woman whom the officer had pushed to the ground, putting his arm around her to protect her, Preetti pepper-sprayed and knocked to the ground after a fight with several federal agents, about six of whom were surrounded by him at the time he was shot and killed.
At its peak in December 2025, ICE was arresting more than 800 people a day on the streets of American communities; far from being accused by Trump of being the "worst criminals," the vast majority had no criminal records, and those who had previous records were mostly minor offenses.
Two out of three people arrested at large during the winter had no criminal record, while only 17 per cent had previous criminal convictions; of this latter group, only a third were classified as "dangerous criminals" by the agency's standards. We would like to emphasize that violence against migrants continues and violence has moved to counter demonstrations in detention centres across the various states.
Second: Detention Centers and Degrading Treatment
The United States operates the world's largest detention system, with more than 370 detention centers, primarily for the purposes of enforcing immigration and public safety laws.
In January 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began raiding sanctuary cities, opening more detention camps to thousands who had been detained awaiting deportation.
As of February 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported that it had used 225 new or updated detention facilities in the current fiscal year, which began on October 1, 2025. On January 15, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported that it was detaining about 73,000 individuals, the highest level since the bureau was founded in 2003.
Several news investigations, leaked claims, or drafts of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement tenders in late 2025 and early 2026 describe plans to renovate industrial warehouses and open several large detention centers that together could add capacity to accommodate tens of thousands — and reportedly reports that more than 80,000 detainees would be housed across new locations and leaked planning targets It reaches approximately 108,000 beds.
Detainees are subjected to all kinds of violations, including violence, sexual harassment and murder. Since January 20, 2025, Senator Ossoff has received 510 credible reports of human rights abuses against individuals detained at Department of Homeland Security and Bureau of Prisons facilities, Department of Health and Human Services facilities, county jails, federal buildings in 25 U.S. states and Puerto Rico, and at U.S. military bases (including Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and Camp Lemonnier in Cuba). Djibouti), and on chartered deportation flights.
These include 41 credible reports of physical and sexual ill-treatment of detainees in immigration detention centres, 14 credible reports of ill-treatment of pregnant women, and 18 credible reports of ill-treatment of children. Incidents that have been reliably reported or confirmed to date include deaths in custody, physical and sexual abuse, ill-treatment of pregnant women, child abuse, inadequate medical care, and overcrowding.
Human rights groups — including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sent a letter in December 2025 to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE)"includes details about violent assaults and sexual abuses committed by members of the Agency.
The letter also reveals other forms of intimidation used to pressure detained migrants into voluntarily deporting themselves or agreeing to transfer them to third countries with which they have no connections.
These findings are based on interviews with more than 45 people currently detained at the Fort Bliss facility, and the letter includes 16 statements signed by persons detained at the same facility.
There are dozens of documents confirming the use of violence, including sexual harassment and rape, in more than one detention center that cannot be listed.
Third: Forced Displacement
In 2026, the United States entered a new era of immigration enforcement, and the country experienced policy shifts during President Trump's second term marked by a rapid expansion of deportations. In the first 100 days, ICE arrested more than 66,000 people and deported more than 65,000, rates not seen in recent years.
The administration has publicly sought to carry out what it describes as the largest mass deportation in U.S. history, targeting About 10 million irregular migrants reside in the country.
This approach reflects a radical shift in enforcement priorities and tactics, supported by comprehensive executive directives and judicial rulings that allow for expedited deportations and deportations to a third State.
The deportation strategy also includes enhanced cooperation under 444 agreements with law enforcement agencies at the local and state levels, an increase of more than 1,000 arrests resulting from workplace law enforcement operations, and the use of international agreements to facilitate deportations to more than 50 countries, including cases where migrants are transferred to countries where they do not originally belong.
El Salvador has become an advanced model for receiving deportees from the United States in exchange for financial rewards for the president Naguib Abu Kayla, the far-right. As the data shows, African countries such as Congo, Rwanda, Ghana, Swatini and Uganda have recently been added to receive deportees.
As the data shows, 2026 marks a milestone in U.S. immigration enforcement efforts, as high numbers of arrests, widespread detention practices, and stringent deportation mechanisms have reshaped the country's approach to immigration control.
Practices that violate human rights
These violations have angered the international community concerned with respect for human rights. In a statement on 23 January 2026, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk expressed grave concern over what he described as the increasing dehumanization of migrants in the United States, warning that current immigration enforcement practices undermine the principles of due process, family unity, and basic human dignity.
In a press release, the High Commissioner said that individuals suspected of being undocumented migrants are being monitored, arrested, and detained – sometimes violently – in locations ranging from Hospitals and places of worship, as well as courts, schools, markets and private homes.
The UN human rights official expressed his astonishment at "the abuse and degradation of migrants and refugees, which have become commonplace." He warned that the fear caused by such federal operations is spreading among communities, with children missing school and medical appointments for fear that their parents will not return.
"Those who dare to raise their voices or peacefully protest against harsh immigration raids are vilified and threatened by officials, and sometimes even subjected to arbitrary violence themselves," Türk said.
The United Nations urges a review of U.S. human rights practices, with a focus on violations of freedom of expression, the repression of dissent, and systematic repression.
The report was submitted as part of the periodic review process in which the UN Human Rights Council assesses the compliance of each Member State with international human rights obligations.
The Human Rights Council submitted a 13-page report on its review of the human rights situation in the United States following its periodic review in December that addressed the totality of violations and devoted paragraphs 64-69 to the issue of the treatment of migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers.
No one lectures us about the model country, the country of freedoms, the rule of law, respect for human rights and democracy.
