In the days since an estimated 7 million people protested across the country against the the attacks on democratic rights and threat of dictatorship by the Trump administration, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launched new raids and major kidnapping operations in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, and in Wilder, Idaho.
Using aggressive and dangerous tactics, including indiscriminate sweeps and the deployment of military-style force against immigrant communities, the latest ICE actions are part of the Trump administration’s escalation of arrests, detention and mass deportations. These measures are also being intertwined with the mobilization of the National Guard to suppress public opposition to the assault on immigrants.
On Tuesday, dozens of federal agents from ICE, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and other police agencies descended on Canal Street in Manhattan’s Chinatown. According to ABC7 New York, at least nine people were arrested during the raid, which targeted street vendors who were accused of selling counterfeit goods.
Witnesses described the chaotic scene as masked federal agents “pushed, pulled, and detained” mostly West African immigrants who sell handbags and watches to tourists. The arrested men were from Senegal, Guinea, Mali and Mauritania. As part of a now standard procedure, DHS claimed that the men have histories of charges like robbery, burglary, domestic violence and assaulting law enforcement.
However, no proof of purported “charges” was presented and, in any case, their treatment by DHS officers is a violation of basic constitutional rights. Jason Jackson, an elevator repairman who works nearby, told ABC7 reporters, “I definitely think this was planned off social media videos. This has been going on for a long time and just out of nowhere, they want to crack down on it.”
DHS defended the action, claiming it was “an intelligence-driven operation focused on criminal activity.” Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons told Fox News that arrests would “increase across New York City” because “there are so many criminal illegals.”
Bystanders who witnessed officers shoving unarmed vendors saw little of the claimed “intelligence-driven operation.” Protesters clashed with federal agents leading to five additional arrests on charges including assaulting law enforcement and obstruction.
Video footage shared online shows officers tackling individuals to the ground as vendors desperately tried to flee. New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office announced a public portal for citizens to upload videos of the incident, vowing to investigate “unlawful questioning, detention, or intimidation” by ICE agents.
On Tuesday in Los Angeles, ICE agents shot and wounded two people, including one of their own federal partners, in what DHS termed a “targeted traffic enforcement stop.” According to Democracy Now! and USA Today, the intended target, Carlitos Ricardo Parias, a Mexican immigrant and social media personality who frequently filmed ICE operations, was hit by bullets, one of which ricocheted and struck a US Marshal.
The botched raid, conducted in downtown Los Angeles, prompted outrage from protesters and residents. Federal agencies later said that the wounded marshal’s injuries were not life-threatening.
DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin attempted to deflect blame, claiming the “incident resulted from resistance by individuals emboldened by sanctuary politicians.” This narrative aligns with the statements President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who have denounced the refusal of the public to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
In an incident in Chicago reported by Yahoo News on Tuesday, Illinois State Representative Hoan Huynh—a Democrat and Vietnamese American candidate for Congress—was surrounded by armed Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers after he attempted to observe suspected ICE activity in the city’s Albany Park neighborhood.
Huynh recounted that six agents blocked his vehicle and at one point an officer pointed a firearm directly at him and threatened to bash in the passenger window. DHS attempted to justify the confrontation, claiming that Huynh had tried “to disrupt operations.” Huynh said the intimidation was “violent federal bullying meant to silence public oversight.”
On October 19, ICE carried out a pre‑dawn raid in Wilder, Idaho. According to Boise State Public Radio and the Idaho Capital Sun, 105 undocumented people were arrested during what DHS described as a “joint operation” aimed at dismantling an “illegal horse‑racing and gambling enterprise.”
Witnesses, however, reported that ICE officers arrived “military‑style,” using drones and helicopters, zip‑tying children, and hitting detainees with rubber bullets.
Leo Morales, executive director of the ACLU of Idaho, condemned the brutality, saying, “The government came in full force, military‑style, helicopters, drones, and arrested and handcuffed everyone, including children. No person, no Idahoan, no American should ever accept whenever a government does this to its own people.”
McLaughlin of DHS claimed that the operation was lawful and necessary “to dismantle criminal networks.” The FBI, notably, canceled a scheduled press conference following the outcry, refusing to release further details.
In a series of statements, DHS and ICE officials have defended their unconstitutional operations. McLaughlin told reporters after the Idaho and Los Angeles raids that federal law enforcement “continues to dismantle criminal networks within U.S. borders” under the direction of Trump and Noem.
Immigrant rights groups have denounced the latest escalation. Activists with No Kings Chicago have organized daily vigils outside ICE processing centers and issued a statement that reads: “These raids are acts of terror. Families are disappearing overnight. The government treats our neighborhoods like occupied territory.”
As demonstrations have spread in response to the raids in every area, the Trump administration has invoked extraordinary powers to suppress the opposition. The administration received court authorization this week to deploy the Oregon National Guard to Portland, where anti‑ICE protests have intensified.
In a divided 2-1 decision issued on October 19, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit asserted that Trump’s claim of threats to “federal personnel and property” in Portland constituted a legitimate basis for invoking emergency powers, even if he exaggerated the events. The court agreed with Trump’s Justice Department that the mobilization was necessary “to restore order against anarchist elements interfering with federal operations.”
The Guard deployment marks the first time since early 2024 that military personnel have been legally authorized for use in a US city to confront immigration protests. Local authorities in Oregon have condemned the decision, warning that it “militarizes civil space.” Similar deployments, though not officially confirmed, have been reported in Chicago and Los Angeles as protests have surged outside ICE detention facilities.
On social media, protesters have shown armored vehicles and camouflage‑clad troops appearing alongside police lines. Activists claim that coordination between ICE and the National Guard was evident in recent confrontations outside the Broadview detention center near Chicago, where witnesses reported flashbang grenades and “military‑style crowd control.”
The recent ICE raids have coincided with stepped‑up National Guard mobilizations across several states, justified under the pretext of “domestic stability operations,” increasingly backed by court approval.
The domestic militarization and crackdown are being carried out in parallel with the administration’s war policies abroad. President Trump’s ongoing military mobilizations in the Middle East, Asia and the Caribbean against the enemies of US imperialism are combined with deployments on US soil portraying domestic dissenters as internal enemies.
The bringing together of the unconstitutional and indiscriminate ICE dragnets against immigrants and the military tactics against protesters is central to the implementation of dictatorial rule under the Trump administration’s second term.
The latest raids and mobilization of the National Guard are part of the implementation of police state measures, as part of Trump’s coordinated political offensive aimed at terrorizing immigrant workers and normalizing mass repression. The brutality on Canal Street, the tear gas in Chicago, the shootings in Los Angeles and the military‑style assault in Idaho all form part of a unified strategy to criminalize poverty and dissent.
The Department of Homeland Security maintains that operations will continue “as long as local jurisdictions fail to cooperate,” promising an open‑ended campaign even though Democrats have either welcomed the federal police agencies or sought unsuccessful court actions to block them.
At the No Kings protests on Saturday, while masses of people made it clear that they are opposed to Trump’s dictatorial agenda, the Democrats on the platform focused on the need for Trump and the Republicans to work with them in a bipartisan manner while studiously avoiding any discussion of the imminent danger of a fascist dictatorship or what should be done to stop it. This is because the Democratic Party is a capitalist party beholden to the same corporate and financial interests supporting Trump’s authoritarianism.
To defeat the fascist threat and defend democratic rights, workers and young people across the US must break with the Democratic Party and build rank-and-file committees in the factories, neighborhoods and schools as part of a mass socialist movement to bring down the Trump government.