New ACLU Report Documents Widespread and Unchecked Civil Rights Abuses by Immigration Agents in Florida and Nationwide During President Trump’s Second Term

MIAMI, FL — The American Civil Liberties Union today released a new national report, Agents of Chaos and Cruelty, documenting widespread civil rights violations by immigration agents across the country during the first year of President Trump’s second term – including new findings on Florida, one of eight states examined.

The report reviews immigration enforcement incidents in Florida, Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, and New Mexico — representing a cross-section of the country and varying levels of federal law enforcement presence and personnel surges. The report found that of the more than 1,200 immigration enforcement incidents examined involved misconduct by immigration agents days after ICE shot and killed two men in Texas and Maine, underscoring what advocates describe as the agency’s out-of-control enforcement practices nationwide.

It is the first in-depth civil rights review of immigration enforcement actions throughout 2025 across these eight states, drawing from prior ACLU litigation, research, advocacy, as well as congressional investigations, human rights documentation, and investigative reporting. It is also the first in a series of reports the ACLU will publish ahead of the 2026 midterm election to press lawmakers toward an affirmative vision for immigration reform.

In Florida, the report documents 66 instances of law enforcement misconduct, including brandishing a weapon, using a taser, and using chokeholds. In Tampa, a mother was deported to Cuba two days after ICE detained her during a check-in appointment that had been moved up — separating her from her 1-year-old U.S. citizen daughter, who was with her at the check-in and still nursing. Her husband reported the separation was so sudden and traumatic that the baby was taken to the hospital.

“Florida has not only been complicit in fueling ICE’s detention machine, but it has actively emboldened its cruel agenda with no regard for human life and Floridians’ safety,” said Keisha Mulfort, Deputy Executive Director and Strategy Officer of the ACLU of Florida. “As one of the only states where every county has deputized local law enforcement to act as immigration agents, Florida has turned routine traffic stops into ICE encounters, enabling rampant racial profiling and terror in our streets. Just earlier this week, a man fled from a parked car and toward his death out of fear of ICE. The chaos and cruelty caused by ICE agents are costing people their lives, and that is a price far too high to continue paying. The reality is this: when a rogue agency is allowed to operate with impunity — our neighbors, our families, and our collective safety are all at risk.”

Though the incidents examined represent a small fraction of total reported enforcement activity in 2025, the pattern across all eight states is unmistakable: what happened in Minneapolis, where federal agents killed U.S. citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Good, was not confined to that location, surge, or population. These were part of a broader pattern of civil rights violations — excessive force, racial profiling, intimidation, and abuse by both federal officials and state and local law enforcement.

“Far beyond Minneapolis, the Trump administration has deployed a national deportation policing force that has committed civil rights violations at a scale and severity without parallel in modern American history – turning schools, bus stops and grocery stores into sites of violence and abuse,” said Naureen Shah, ACLU director of policy and government affairs and report author. “These are not isolated events. Stephen Miller took these tactics straight from the authoritarian playbook and is now overseeing a $240 billion immigration enforcement machine that threatens all our rights.”

Among the report’s key findings nationwide:

• Agents used force and the threat of force as default tactics. The report documented 418 times agents pushed, shoved, tackled or pinned people; 361 times agents deployed chemical irritants, including 131 times they were directly aimed at individuals and 81 instances when agents used tactics that can limit breathing and become deadly, such as chokeholds.

• Instead of protecting children, the administration turned their enforcement tools against them. The report identified 214 children who were detained, targeted for enforcement or experienced law enforcement misconduct, including 32 U.S. citizen children.

• Racial profiling by federal, state and local agents was rampant. The report documented 437 incidents involving likely racial profiling by agents.

• U.S. citizens were often impacted in immigration enforcement. The report identified 155 U.S. citizens detained, targeted or who experienced law enforcement misconduct.

• Agents routinely conducted enforcement at or near sensitive locations, including 49 documented incidents at or near schools – prompting 40 school lockdowns.

• Protesters, journalists, elected officials, clergy, and community observers were also regularly targeted by immigration agents. The report found that 783 total people in those groups were detained, targeted, or subjected to misconduct.

The report also documents a systemic breakdown in accountability. Agents masked their faces, drove unmarked vehicles, and wore clothing that did not quickly indicate an agency affiliation. With multiple agencies outside ICE redirected to conduct enforcement, these tactics sometimes made it difficult for people to know whether they were being criminally abducted and made it impossible for victims and bystanders to know who to hold responsible for abuse.

Critically, the report highlights how oversight measures have failed to hold immigration agents accountable. Congress had an opportunity to reform ICE during recent funding negotiations but instead passed a blank check without the commonsense reforms that advocates and communities made clear were needed.

Recommendations include:

• Exit voluntary 287(g) agreements with ICE in local governments, which deputize local law enforcement as ICE agents and aren’t required agreements under state law.

• Pass a path to citizenship for millions of people who are immigrants, such as through the American Dream and Promise Act.

• Replace the current broken system with a new immigration management agency oriented toward service, keeping families together and meeting the needs of the American workforce.

• Dismantle the national deportation policing force, including by ending ICE’s 287(g) program that draws state and local police into deportations.

• Ensure that people who are victimized can sue and hold federal law enforcement officers and agencies accountable for abuse, including by enacting the Bivens Act and Constitutional Accountability Act.

• Enact limits and robust oversight measures on collaboration and deputization between state and federal law enforcement.

Throughout the ACLU’s affirmative vision report series, this release is the first, in which policy and legal experts will examine how the Trump administration’s immigration agenda has harmed communities nationwide, gutted asylum and other legal pathways, undermined democracy, and weakened the American workforce. Further, it outlines steps that members of Congress, as well as state and local policymakers, can take in response.

You can read the full report and findings here:

https://www.aclu.org/publications/agents-of-chaos-and-cruelty-how-the-trump-administrations-national-deportation-policing-force-has-attacked-american-communities