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Monday, January 26, 2026 03:25PM

Immigration enforcement

Immigration raids:

New York City Canal Street raid:

A homeland security spokesperson said, "ICE and its federal partners, including FBI, DEA, ATF, IRS-CI, and CBP, conducted a targeted, intelligence-driven enforcement operation on Canal Street in New York City, focused on criminal activity relating to selling counterfeit goods."[72]

On October 21, 2025, Canal Street in New York City had a major immigration raid. On that day, around 50 federal agents raided the streets, where African and Chinese illegal immigrants would illegally sell counterfeit luxury items to tourists. The Department of Homeland Security said that their agents arrested nine men, mostly from West Africa, who were accused of living in the United States illegally and had prior arrests since they were "targeted in an operation 'focused on criminal activity relating to selling counterfeit goods,' "[73].

Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said that ICE arrested nine illegal aliens who had previous criminal histories, including "robbery, burglary, domestic violence, assaulting law enforcement, counterfeiting, drug trafficking, drug possession, and forgery.”[74]

Due to the raid, several hundred people rallied at 26 Plaza, the New York City headquarters of ICE, to protest the raid. According to reporters Li and Silva, "the raid also showed how public resistance to ICE’s action is building. Protesters gathered at nearby Foley Square on Wednesday to draw attention to the raid."[75] Protesters attempted to block immigration agents from carrying out the operations, and hundreds of angry New Yorkers "clashed with federal agents."[76] During the protest, five protesters were taken into custody, as they were accused of assaulting law enforcement and obstructing.[76]

Chicago Little Village raid:

On September 8, Donald Trump launched the blitz, part of his Operation Midway Blitz, to enforce an immigration crackdown in the Chicago area, to catch the "worst of the worst"[77] criminal immigrants. This operation left local critics to say that many innocent people were left terrorized.

The Department of Homeland Security said "it is launching Operation Midway Blitz, a new initiative targeting undocumented immigrants who commit crimes across Chicago and Illinois." ^[78]

On October 1, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security announced that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Border Patrol officers had arrested more than 800 illegal aliens.[78]

“During Operation Midway Blitz, DHS law enforcement has made more than 800 arrests across Illinois. The Trump Administration will not allow violent criminals or repeat offenders to terrorize our neighborhoods or victimize our children and innocent Americans,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin[79].

On October 8, DHS said that "ICE and U.S Border Patrol officers had arrested more than 1,500 illegal aliens — including criminal pedophiles, murderers, child abusers, kidnappers, gang members, and armed robbers."[77]

On October 22 and October 23, federal agents raided Little Village, a longtime historic Mexican neighborhood in Chicago, "removing several people, causing car accidents and brandishing weapons, according to residents, local leaders and advocates." [78]said Crowley and Loria from USA Today Network.

Border Enforcement

"Smart Plan"

Trump's new "Smart Wall" plan has border walls and new surveillance technology to be placed on the Big Bend region and the remainder of Texas's southern border. On October 15, 2025, in a published notice, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote "that the department had determined there is an 'acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads' in the U.S. Border Patrol’s Big Bend Sector." ^[80] The many illegal crossings and smuggling activities in the Big Bend have caused the Trump administration to crack down on border security.

On October 10, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security reveals its "Smart Plan" for the US–Mexico border, which includes:

Additionally, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency has issued $4.5 billion to initiate construction.[80]

The first installment of President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act was used to fund tens of billions of dollars, including "230 miles of new fencing and 400 miles of new roads and technology."[82] - Washington Times.

Excess, waste, and ineffectiveness

The department has been dogged by persistent criticism over excessive bureaucracy, waste, ineffectiveness and lack of transparency. Congress estimates that the department has wasted roughly $15 billion in failed contracts (as of September 2008).[93] In 2003, the department came under fire after the media revealed that Laura Callahan, Deputy Chief Information Officer at DHS with responsibilities for sensitive national security databases, had obtained her bachelor, masters, and doctorate computer science degrees through Hamilton University, a diploma mill in a small town in Wyoming.[94] The department was blamed for up to $2 billion of waste and fraud after audits by the Government Accountability Office revealed widespread misuse of government credit cards by DHS employees, with purchases including beer brewing kits, $70,000 of plastic dog booties that were later deemed unusable, boats purchased at double the retail price (many of which later could not be found), and iPods ostensibly for use in "data storage".[95][96][97][98]

A 2015 inspection of IT infrastructure found that the department was running over a hundred computer systems whose owners were unknown, including Secret and Top Secret databases, many with out-of-date security or weak passwords. Basic security reviews were absent, and the department had apparently made deliberate attempts to delay publication of information about the flaws.[99]

Data mining

On September 5, 2007, the Associated Press reported that the DHS had scrapped an anti-terrorism data mining tool called ADVISE (Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight and Semantic Enhancement) after the agency's internal inspector general found that pilot testing of the system had been performed using data on real people without required privacy safeguards in place.[100][101] The system, in development at Lawrence Livermore and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory since 2003, has cost the agency $42 million to date. Controversy over the program is not new; in March 2007, the Government Accountability Office stated that "the ADVISE tool could misidentify or erroneously associate an individual with undesirable activity such as fraud, crime or terrorism." Homeland Security's Inspector General later said that ADVISE was poorly planned, time-consuming for analysts to use, and lacked adequate justifications.[102]

Fusion centers

Main article: Fusion center

Fusion centers are terrorism prevention and response centers, many of which were created under a joint project between the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs between 2003 and 2007. The fusion centers gather information from government sources as well as their partners in the private sector.[103][104]

They are designed to promote information sharing at the federal level between agencies such as the CIA, FBI, Department of Justice, U.S. military and state and local level government. As of July 2009, DHS recognized at least seventy-two fusion centers.[105] Fusion centers may also be affiliated with an Emergency Operations Center that responds in the event of a disaster.

There are a number of documented criticisms of fusion centers, including relative ineffectiveness at counterterrorism activities, the potential to be used for secondary purposes unrelated to counterterrorism, and their links to violations of civil liberties of American citizens and others.[106]

David Rittgers of the Cato Institute notes:

A long line of fusion center and DHS reports labeling broad swaths of the public as a threat to national security. The North Texas Fusion System labeled Muslim lobbyists as a potential threat; a DHS analyst in Wisconsin thought both pro- and anti-abortion activists were worrisome; a Pennsylvania homeland security contractor watched environmental activists, Tea Party groups, and a Second Amendment rally; the Maryland State Police put anti-death penalty and anti-war activists in a federal terrorism database; a fusion center in Missouri thought that all third-party voters and Ron Paul supporters were a threat ...[107]

Mail interception

In 2006, MSNBC reported that Grant Goodman, "an 81-year-old retired University of Kansas history professor, received a letter from his friend in the Philippines that had been opened and resealed with a strip of dark green tape bearing the words "by Border Protection" and carrying the official Homeland Security seal."[108] The letter was sent by a devout Catholic Filipino woman with no history of supporting Islamic terrorism.[108] A spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection "acknowledged that the agency can, will and does open mail coming to U.S. citizens that originates from a foreign country whenever it's deemed necessary":

All mail originating outside the United States Customs territory that is to be delivered inside the U.S. Customs territory is subject to Customs examination," says the CBP Web site. That includes personal correspondence. "All mail means 'all mail,'" said John Mohan, a CBP spokesman, emphasizing the point.[108]

The department declined to outline what criteria are used to determine when a piece of personal correspondence should be opened or to say how often or in what volume Customs might be opening mail.[108]

Goodman's story provoked outrage in the blogosphere,[109] as well as in the more established media. Reacting to the incident, Mother Jones remarked "unlike other prying government agencies, Homeland Security wants you to know it is watching you."[110] CNN observed "on the heels of the NSA wiretapping controversy, Goodman's letter raises more concern over the balance between privacy and security."[111]

Employee morale

In July 2006, the Office of Personnel Management conducted a survey of federal employees in all 36 federal agencies on job satisfaction and how they felt their respective agency was headed. DHS was last or near to last in every category including;

The low scores were attributed to concerns about basic supervision, management and leadership within the agency. Examples from the survey reveal most concerns are about promotion and pay increase based on merit, dealing with poor performance, rewarding creativity and innovation, leadership generating high levels of motivation in the workforce, recognition for doing a good job, lack of satisfaction with various component policies and procedures and lack of information about what is going on with the organization.[112][113]

DHS is the only large federal agency to score below 50% in overall survey rankings. It was last of large federal agencies in 2014 with 44.0% and fell even lower in 2015 at 43.1%, again last place.[114] DHS continued to rank at the bottom in 2019, prompting congressional inquiries into the problem.[115] High work load resulting from chronic staff shortage, particularly in Customs and Border Protection, has contributed to low morale,[116] as have scandals and intense negative public opinion heightened by immigration policies of the Obama administration.[117]

DHS has struggled to retain women, who complain of overt and subtle misogyny.[118]

MIAC report

In 2009, the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) made news for targeting supporters of third party candidates (such as Ron Paul), anti-abortion activists, and conspiracy theorists as potential militia members.[119] Anti-war activists and Islamic lobby groups were targeted in Texas, drawing criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union.[120]

According to DHS:[121]

The Privacy Office has identified a number of risks to privacy presented by the fusion center program:

  1. Justification for fusion centers
  2. Ambiguous Lines of Authority, Rules, and Oversight
  3. Participation of the Military and the Private Sector
  4. Data Mining
  5. Excessive Secrecy
  6. Inaccurate or Incomplete Information
  7. Mission Creep

Freedom of Information Act processing performance

In the Center for Effective Government analysis of 15 federal agencies which receive the most Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, published in 2015 (using 2012 and 2013 data), the Department of Homeland Security earned a D+ by scoring 69 out of a possible 100 points, i.e. did not earn a satisfactory overall grade. It also had not updated its policies since the 2007 FOIA amendments.[122]

Fourteen Words slogan and "88" reference

In 2018, the DHS was accused of referencing the white nationalist Fourteen Words slogan in an official document, by using a similar fourteen-worded title, in relation to unlawful immigration and border control:[123]

We Must Secure The Border And Build The Wall To Make America Safe Again.[124]

Although dismissed by the DHS as a coincidence, both the use of "88" in a document and the similarity to the slogan's phrasing ("We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children"), drew criticism and controversy from several media outlets.[125][126]

Surveillance

ICE

American Dragnet, a report from the Center on Privacy and Technology, documents the scope of ICE's surveillance capabilities. The report found that ICE has access to the driver’s license data of 3 in 4 adults, could locate 3 in 4 adults through their utility records and tracks the movements of drivers in cities home to 3 in 4 adults.[135][136] The report also claimed "the agency spent approximately $2.8 billion between 2008 and 2021 on new surveillance, data collection and data-sharing initiatives".[137][138] ICE has also used data brokers to circumvent laws restricting government bodies sharing information with ICE.[139][140][141] ICE has reportedly been a customer of Paragon Solutions and confirmed its use of Clearview AI.[142][143][144][145] Additionally, ICE has reportedly used Mobile Fortify, ShadowDragon, the network of Flock Safety, Magnetic Forensics, and products from Pen-Link, LexisNexis and Booz Allen Hamilton.[146][147][148][149]

See also: Immigration policy of the second Trump administration § Use of data in enforcement

The Second Trump administration reportedly worked to obtain and centralize data on Americans as outlined in Executive Order 14243 relying heavily on products from Palantir Technologies.[150] This data has been desired to support expanded deportation efforts carried out by DHS. The administration has sought data from the IRS,[151][152] Medicaid[153] and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.[154][155] ICE has also received data from within DHS including from the TSA.[156]

Office of Intelligence and Analysis

The Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) has a history of problematic surveillance.[157][158][159] In 2020, the I&A authorized "collecting and reporting on various activities in the context of elevated threats targeting monuments, memorials, and statues".[160][161] The office surveilled protestors at the George Floyd protests in Portland, Oregon[162][163] In September 2023, Congress considered revoking some of the agency’s collection authorities over concerns about overreach.[164] According to Politico, "a key theme that emerges from internal documents is that in recent years, many people working at I&A have said they fear they are breaking the law".[165] In 2025, sexual orientation and gender identity were removed from I&A's list of characteristics that "personnel are prohibited from engaging in intelligence activities based solely on".[166]

Acting unmarked

Detention of Rümeysa Öztürk

DHS has repeatedly acted unmarked.[167]

Warrants

See also: Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution

DHS has repeatedly acted without a warrant.[168][169][170][171][172]

See also

See PDF for complete article downloaded from Wikipedia

Monday, January 26, 2026 03:36PM

United States Department of Homeland Security - Wikipedia

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