ICE tactics are growing more violent

Question

ICE presence has been increasing significantly across the country. Especially in states that are considered more welcoming to immigrants. Due to the outbreak of protests, changes in laws, etc, there are public concerns that ICE tactics have become more violent.

Answer 1

This original claim from NPR is true. The article claims that ICE has become more violent in cities with high rates of immigration, especially in cities with a high number of immigrants. Most of the accounts covered took place in Chicago. Specifically, the attack on a reporter for CBS Chicago, Anderson links this account with the CBS article, which has quotes and photo evidence from the reporter who experienced this. The article includes multiple accounts of violence from ICE officers, which the author has linked with the original source from multiple organizations so these accounts can be easily verified. Other organizations have covered these stories as well, like CNN: “A judge in Illinois has temporarily blocked federal agents from using certain types of force and crowd-control measures against protesters, after video of a pastor being repeatedly shot by pepper balls during a demonstration outside at an ICE facility near Chicago drew widespread outcry” (Sharmen, 2025). The Author, Meg Anderson is an experienced writer for NPR, which can be seen here. The text is in a written in a truly unbiassed style to inform readers about these multiple accounts of unjustified violence, and displaying people’s growing fear over ICE’s violence. 

https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/10/us/illinois-judge-ruling-ice-protests-pastor-chicago-hnk Sharman, 2025. 

Answer 2

This claim is true, as there is more ICE activity increasing in cities, they have also resulted in using more violent tactics towards civilians. ICE agents have been seen with weapons on multiple occasions. An article published by NPR News, a non-profit media organization in the United States, provides many examples of ICE agents using violence, “one of the officers drops his gun and fumbles for it. Then, he appears to point it at bystanders”. However, Emily Covington, an assistant director in ICE’s Office of Public Affairs, told NPR that drawing a weapon can be used to de-escalate situations. Although it seems like drawing a weapon would make the situation much more tense and scary especially for the ones with no weapons. NPR states another example, “from Broadway, I11., near Chicago, appears to show a man outside an ICE facility getting shot in the head with a pepper ball, a projectile filled with chemical irritants. That man, Pastor David Black, has sued the Trump administration”. In the video shown, he is just shouting at them but not doing anything aggressive towards them, however they respond with violence. Another article published by CBS, states how reporter Asal Rezaei was shot by a pepper ball while sitting in her car outside a ICE facility. Rezaei expressed, “there was no active protest or protesters at the facility…no one around her at the time of the incident”. There are pictures of the truck after the incident on the article, Rezaei suffered irritation and nausea from the chemicals. Even though CBS News is left leaning, they provided evidence from the scene that backed up their claim. As we can see ICE agents, have no fear using violence against immigrants or bystanders.

 https://www.npr.org/2025/10/13/nx-s1-5566785/ice-dhs-immigration-tactics-more-violent

https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/feds-fire-pepper-ball-at-cbs-chicago-reporters-truck/?mc_cid=8dc507ce67&mc_eid=9c4a02011b