Ice Raids are becoming more frequent and facing less government regulation. (PBS)
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the government agency that manages everything concerning Immigration, including deportation. When Donald Trump was running for president, one of the promises that he made if he got elected was to increase the size and power of ICE.
Due to the change made by President Trump, ICE has been gaining activity all around the United States, but especially in states with large immigrant populations like Texas, Florida, and California. In California, ICE-related arrests in July of 2025 have risen 123 percent compared to July of 2024.
This increase in activity has caused a large amount of mass unrest in America. This unrest, like other situations in the past, has resulted in many people protesting against ICE, saying the agency is unjust. Where you can see this unrest the most is on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, people often make videos or posts explaining their own experiences with ICE and showing how many arrests made by immigration services are unjust and sometimes forceful.
Furthermore, social media is a place where celebrities or people with influence can convey their messages or make comments to the public. Some public figures who have voiced their opposition towards ICE on social media are Tyler the Creator, Kim Kardashian, Olivia Rodrigo, and Mark Ruffalo. On her Instagram story, Kim Kardashian posted, stating that, “when we’re told that ICE exists to keep our country safe and remove violent criminals – great. But when we witness innocent, hardworking people being ripped from their families, we have to speak up. We have to do what’s right.” This wasn’t only a political post calling out ICE, but it was also Kardashian using her platform to spread a call to action.
People all across America have been protesting and calling out ICE for their unfair ways of doing things, claiming that ICE is corrupt. One instance of this claim was something that happened in San Bernardino, California, on August 16, 2025, when a man and his two sons were stopped by two unmarked vehicles. The family was cut off by one of the vehicles, and the other boxed his car in from behind, followed by several masked agents surrounding their vehicle, demanding they provide identification. After the family refused to provide identification, claiming that there was no probable cause, the ICE agents destroyed both the windows at the front of the car. Of course, this caused the family to flee, which was responded to by the ICE agents opening fire on the car as they drove away.
This whole situation did not end up in the family getting deported or detained by the ICE agents, but the father is now being charged with attempted assault of a government officer. This, of course, has caused outrage; there were several protests outside of the family’s house, along with severe outrage online.
In its description, ICE claims to deport illegal and dangerous criminals from the country, but with the amount of deportations reaching over two hundred thousand, many people believe that ICE is corrupt and unjustly deporting people.