FUCK ICE!! Resisting the Largest Domestic Deportation in U.S. History

CrimethInc.

(Castellano) (Euskara)

By now, it is well known that it is ICE, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)¹, even though the international spotlight has shifted and remains on the Strait of Hormuz². But even though the international focus is elsewhere, and the Trump administration has too many fires to put out, ICE’s threats and activities have not stopped. Fortunately, neither has the action against it. And we can say that it is a well-organized and courageous resistance. From February 25 to March 1, a Week of Action against ICE took place in the state that has seen the greatest tension: Minnesota. Among the actions organized were marches, a blockade of the ICE office in the federal building, as well as talks, training sessions, and more (you can read about them here).

The struggle continues, which is why it was one of the main demands on May 1, as well as on “Steal Something from Work Day” on  April 15, which focused on securing resources for those who, due to persecution by ICE and other agencies, are excluded from basic services.  In late May, a wave of hunger strikes took place in immigration detention centers across the United States. The hunger strike by 300 detainees at Delaney Hall (New Jersey) sparked ten days of protests, which were met with a fierce crackdown by federal, state, and local authorities.. From February 25 to March 1, a week-long event took place in Minnesota, the state where tensions have been highest…

This April, activists from the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and Saint Paul) have toured the entire United States to report on what is happening there but also to share their experience of resistance through rapid-response networks. Because let’s not forget that Minnesota has served in part as a laboratory for putting certain policies into practice that they would like to apply across the rest of the country. But the laboratory of resistance has also drawn its conclusions.

In addition, CrimethInc. has continued to publish not only information about current events, but also guidance on how to confront ICE and other law enforcement agencies. In this vein, the “Guide to a Self-Organized Community Defense Skills Workshop” (online) was published. But without a doubt, the most notable resource is the compilation of all the articles in Spanish into a physical book: “Fuck ICE: Struggles Against Trump’s Immigration Policy in the United States.” It has been published …

Bigot Trump in his own territory

ICE has demonstrated Donald Trump’s vileness in his own country and against his own fellow citizens. Because for the purposes of fascism, the most profitable approach is to treat those fellow citizens as different people, and to emphasize the difference, what sets them apart. And as with all fascism, the target group is always the most disadvantaged.

In fascism, these campaigns of stigmatization and repression aim to create an enemy upon whom to pin political and social failure, as well as social anger over denied rights; to divide society, emphasizing fragmentation, and to create control of some people over others; to spread fear (terror) and also to extend mechanisms of control and repression; and above all, to divert attention from those who are truly plundering the country. It is significant that the focus of Trump’s policies is on immigration.

If during his first term Trump already made his xenophobia clear with those plans to build a wall along the border with Mexico³, he now returned to office with the aim of launching “the largest mass deportation program in history.” What they announced as “the largest immigration control operation ever carried out” was entitled Operation Metro Surge, which took place in the Twin Cities and was later expanded to the rest of Minnesota.

To do this, they either reinterpreted immigration laws (such as the one from 1891) or bypassed regulations and protocols that protect people’s rights. To this end, they also passed a new law in July 2025, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA), which allocates nearly $170 billion to law enforcement over the next four years.

What is now making headlines has been reported by CrimethInc. since the inception of Trump’s legislation. Not only for predicting the danger it posed, but because CrimethInc. has a long history of independently reporting on the various threats of capitalism—and above all, actively fighting against it. The information published by CrimethInc. is not mere information; it comes directly from the activists themselves. Anarchist activists who are fighting against the rise of fascism on the front lines, but also in communities and workplaces based on anarchist principles and convictions. These activists have long defended the rights of migrants, especially undocumented migrants who have suddenly become (and remain) victims of one of the most brutal xenophobic persecutions in recorded history.

Trump took office for the second time (he previously served from 2017 to 2020) in January 2025. It has been just over a year since CrimethInc. has been monitoring and fighting ICE’s arbitrary persecution of racialized people (the method of identifying migrants is based on racial stereotypes, although, ironically, many of the ICE agents carrying out the arrests also belong to racialized communities—a typical capitalist, colonialist strategy of using the same social sector to criminalize and persecute it). By February, ICE’s attempts were already evident in cities like Chicago and Denver, which, as CrimethInc. noted, are cities “governed by their political adversaries.”³

As we already know, that has been the other objective of this ICE escalation: to operate in territory hostile to deportations, what in the U.S. is known as sanctuary cities. The others were Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, and New York, but above all Minneapolis, where, in 2020, weeks of unrest unfolded—including the burning of the police station—following the murder of African American citizen George Floyd. Yes, Minneapolis had defied WASP power and the Trump doctrine, therefore it was in the State’s aim and weren’t going to let it happen again.

Since that February, CrimethInc. had been reporting on ICE, and we had been translating it into Spanish, more aware than ever that this information was also essential for the people being persecuted in the primary language of those threatened with deportation: Spanish. Until then, we didn’t even know what the acronym ICE stood for here. We had to look up its meaning online. That year there were more than a dozen (14) articles on ICE, supplanting articles that had previously been priorities, such as those on Palestine or the persecution of anti-genocide activists, or, until then, other significant local struggles such as the one at COP City (Atlanta).

ICE became the top news priority, primarily due to the levels of repression, exclusion, and persecution it entailed, but also because of the levels of resistance, organization, and solidarity. And this year, with just two months gone by, there were already about 18 articles. Because by the start of the year, two people had already been killed (Renee Good and Alex Pretti) and another injured (Julio Sosa Celis), not to mention the three others who have died in deportation centers. Three more articles had been added by then (adding 35!). The sheer number of articles and the focus on this topic demonstrate the significance that ICE and the resistance it sparked have had for the anarchist movement.

Renee Good’s death shocked the world because of its callousness, its arbitrariness, and its abuse of authority. But through her, as with Alex Pretti, we learned that beyond the deportations, there was organized resistance. That organization stemmed from a tradition of resistance in communities that have known how to organize themselves. CrimethInc. also emphasized that this resistance should extend to others directly or indirectly affected by this escalation of oppression, and that people should know how to act using various guides.

But above all, the focus was on rapid-response networks—the networks through which citizens in those cities organized to effectively provide protection and support to victims of ICE⁴. These networks are based on libertarian philosophy, operating outside institutional channels, without hierarchies, with equity, horizontally, through assemblies, and rooted in the community. And above all, with great discretion in these times of invasive technology and widespread surveillance. ⁵

Another aspect we cannot lest away is that these networks are altruistic. It may seem obvious, but at the heart of capitalism, in this era where everything is done for money, these networks have operated with no economic goal other than to defend the most vulnerable and persecuted people. Rapid response networks are a great example of mutual aid that acts tirelessly every day with the sole aim of helping others in similar situations (and for us, because we are all—or could be—in that position).

But furthermore, the severe repression against both so-called undocumented individuals and activists—including deaths—triggered a response against those (in)security forces that also led to more violence. In that situation, despite harsh weather conditions (snow, cold), people did not back down and also stood up to the repression and law enforcement, which is truly admirable.

Trump’s Immigration Policies

In his election campaign, as in previous ones, Trump focused on immigration, its prevention, and the deportation of immigrants. Thus, he announced the “largest domestic deportation in American history” (which, in his conception, refers to “U.S. American”…). His goal is none other than to deport every person he considers to be residing in the country without permission, a number initially estimated at 15 or 20 million and later reduced to 11 million people. In any case, a staggering number!

To achieve this, Trump proposed detaining 1,200 to 1,500 people daily, a figure later set at 3,000. This also requires a massive number of personnel (ICE). But taking action against so many people on such a continuous basis implies relaxing or abandoning any legal and administrative protection, thereby undermining people’s rights. Furthermore, the concept of a “legal immigrant” is flawed because it excludes all those who, for example, entered as children and are now adults—and who are considered legal immigrants. Or those with temporary permits. Or the many refugees fleeing conflict, disaster, or political persecution. The last thing they need is further persecution. That is not why they left their country. Not to mention that, in accordance with our principles, borders do not exist, and therefore we cannot classify anyone as legal or illegal. The fact is that, as a result, many people were detained by mistake, even according to their own criteria.

The Trump administration boasts of having achieved “negative net migration by 2025, for the first time in over 50 years, reversing decades of uncontrolled migration and restoring control over our sovereignty.”⁶ In these achievements, the Trump administration counts 3 million people who have left the United States. Of these, 675,000 are believed to have been deported on their own accord (in October 2025, the official figure was 527,000, which independent immigration analysts estimated to be closer to 380,000), and of these, “more than 400,000 were undocumented immigrants charged with or convicted of crimes” —people who, if that is the case, were deported without any kind of trial! The remaining 2.2 million are considered “self-expulsions”: those who left out of panic upon seeing the turn of events, feeling that they might be next, upon hearing the atrocities and the abuse with which others in the same circumstances were treated; unable to bear any more pressure in their lives, already mired in misery and economic, labor, and social oppression. But the truth is, it’s impossible to even estimate or determine exactly how many we’re talking about. The entire plan suffers from a severe lack of transparency.

But the 675,000 people deported is indeed a huge number, especially given the arbitrariness with which they operate. Even so, we must remember that deportation has not been a practice exclusive to the Trump administration but rather something inherent to the U.S. government, existing in all previous administrations, though not in such a crude and terrorific manner (but always inhumane). Apparently, its results are lower than those achieved under the Obama and Biden administrations: after taking office in January 2025, it recorded about 800 arrests per day, which dropped to fewer than 600 arrests per day in February.

From that point on, ICE stopped publishing daily statistics. The reasons for this decline, despite the forcefulness with which ICE has operated, are believed to be varied: on the one hand, this forcefulness has caused people to flee or go into hiding. On the other hand, there has been a decrease in the arrival of undocumented immigrants. And finally, the detention and deportation rates from previous administrations—which affect the number of immigrants to be deported, despite Trump’s objections—are no longer as high. And, of course, we should add that community resistance to these detentions and deportations has also led to a decline in the numbers.

In the words of the White House itself: “The Trump Administration doubled ICE’s workforce and expanded detention capacity (including the largest migrant detention center in U.S. history).” It increased detention infrastructure capacity to 66,000 detainees.

 

But it also “conducted more than 206 million eligibility checks for benefits to preserve programs for Americans, suspended benefits for at least 1.4 million ineligible undocumented immigrants, and located more than 132,000 unaccompanied minors who had gone missing under the previous administration.” Yes, while ICE’s detentions and deportations have shocked the world, there is much more, such as the exclusion of millions of families from aid for which they were eligible, leaving them to fend for themselves. If Trump has already shown that he can operate outside any scrutiny, congressional decisions, etc., in this case he does the same with other immigration departments, social services, health services, etc., state governments, city councils, charities, human rights organizations… he operates as he pleases, bypassing everything.

In addition to the infrastructure of the immigration department itself and ICE, there is the military contribution in various areas, such as the planes used for deportations (at a cost of $850,000 per flight! not added to tehh deportation bill…). Also, the security services during detentions provided by the military to ICE. For example, 2,000 National Guard soldiers were sent to Los Angeles, plus another 700 Marines were added. All of this has contributed to an unprecedented militarization of American society, which also includes large-scale repression of citizens, includding, as said, death.

But undoubtedly, another major problem raised by this plan is its high economic cost. Initially, Trump’s goals were considered unattainable due to the high costs involved. But once again, we have seen that Trump is indifferent to this as long as he achieves his goals (or part of them). The libertarian CATO Institute estimates that the plan will add nearly one trillion dollars to the existing U.S. debt. The 2025 Immigration and Border budget was 34 trillion⁷.

Faced with a shortage of agents to achieve these goals, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency offered $50,000 bonuses and other benefits to new recruits. It also spent $6.5 million just on 30-second ads to recruit agents. This advertising campaign targeted police officers frustrated with the lackluster immigration response from previous administrations and other regional and local institutions. They spent $30 billion to recruit 10,000 members.

And to that economic cost must be added the indirect cost of removing so many people. In addition to these costs, there are those related to the impact on the economy, since these individuals contributed to the U.S. economy—whether legally or illegally (in most cases under unacceptable conditions of exploitation). Many sectors that rely on this cheap labor—such as agriculture—have been affected by the labor shortage. In addition to these individuals, there are many others who, due to arbitrary persecution based on stereotypes and their personal experiences, felt threatened and decided not to run risks and tosubject themselves to further abuse, leading them to leave their jobs or, in more extreme cases, even the country.

Despite all this—despite the high level of repression and persecution of people, which includes the imprisonment of even minors and the deaths of some detainees; the loss of jobs for people already struggling to find work and living in precarious situations; and deportation—Trump’s goal has not been achieved, largely due to the social backlash. Instead, as we say, we have seen the development of solidarity and cooperative practices that above all challenge abuse, racism, and authoritarianism; in short, fascism. That an organized, conscious, and active society has emerged from the tragedy of this attempt to establish fascism in the United States is the best outcome we could have hoped for. Let us keep these communities organized and united, and put an end to this fascism as soon as possible.

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