The American Civil Liberties Union released a report on July 16, 2026, detailing the use of force in more than 1,200 immigration enforcement operations conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or law enforcement agencies working with ICE. The report found that nearly one-third of these incidents involved the use of force or the threat of force, raising serious concerns about the tactics employed in federal immigration enforcement across the country.

The operations analyzed in the report occurred across eight states from January 2025 through the end of 2025. Researchers compiled data from a range of sources, including news coverage, press releases issued by schools and hospitals, and documentation provided by community organizations. The ACLU documented hundreds of incidents involving not only immigration targets but also children, U.S. citizens, protesters, bystanders, and journalists.

According to the report, immigration agents pushed, tackled, or pinned individuals to the ground more than 400 times during the reviewed period. Officers also used weapons—including chemical irritants, rubber bullets, and tasers—approximately 400 times. Dozens of cases involved potentially deadly tactics, such as pressing a knee into a person’s neck or applying chokeholds. In dozens of other instances, immigration officers rammed vehicles, boxed them in, and smashed car windows during enforcement actions.

Naureen Shah, Director of Policy and Government Affairs for Immigration at the ACLU, said the findings point to a systemic shift in enforcement culture. "You're seeing the threat of using force and actually using it become the default tool for immigration enforcement agents," she said. Shah added that the agency operates under intense pressure to meet arrest quotas, with vast funding backing its operations: "They've got a culture of abuse and impunity where people are under tremendous pressure to fulfill unprecedented arrest quotas, and now they have a practice of using force and intimidation … and then you multiply that by tens of billions of dollars. She expressed alarm about future outcomes, stating, I'm really worried there's going to be even more of these killings."

The report’s release comes during three fatal incidents in July 2026 involving ICE officers. In Texas, ICE officers shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, and in Maine, they shot and killed Joan Durán Guerrero. Both men were in their cars at the time of the shootings and had not been the subject of prior ICE targeted operations. A third person died in Florida in July 2026 after being struck by a semi-truck while fleeing from ICE officers during a traffic stop.

ICE stated that Salgado Araujo had weaponized his vehicle, while the Department of Homeland Security claimed that Durán Guerrero attempted to flee and that the officer shot him out of fear for public safety. However, witnesses have disputed the account that Salgado Araujo weaponized his vehicle. The ICE officers involved in both shootings were not wearing body cameras, limiting independent verification of the events.

Jillian Snider, a retired New York City police officer and lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, raised concerns about the increasing reliance on traffic stops by immigration agents. "Now we've seen an increase in doing car stops, which is a big concern if you're not afforded the proper car stop training," she said. Snider noted that targeted enforcement traditionally involves locating known individuals, but the shift toward traffic stops introduces new risks. She emphasized standard law enforcement protocols: "In a situation where you have a car stopped, but there's no imminent threat of deadly physical force or serious physical injury, most agencies will not authorize [the officer] to shoot."

Law Professor Seth Stoughton of the University of South Carolina criticized the lack of official data collection and oversight. "My first thought is it's a little embarrassing for this information to be gathered, aggregated, analyzed and shared by the ACLU instead of the Department of Homeland Security," he said. Stoughton stressed the democratic necessity of transparency: "Living in a democracy means that the government is doing a good job when and only when we the people say it's doing a good job. And that requires a certain degree of transparency about the nature of governmental operations."

Stoughton also pointed to recurring tactical errors in ICE operations, suggesting failures in both training and supervision. "When we see a broad pattern of what appear to be very consistent mistakes – like the way officers are conducting traffic stops or the really poor way they're trying to engage in boxing-in maneuvers, or the way they're rushing up to cars and taking or maintaining positions in a vehicle's path of travel or the way they're very quickly breaking out windows in a way that's likely to encourage someone to flee rather than to comply – that may or may not be a training issue, but it is definitely also a supervision issue," he said. He added, "Why aren't supervisors identifying problematic and counterproductive behaviors and doing something about it?"

The Department of Homeland Security and ICE did not respond to questions about the findings of the ACLU report. The report also references broader enforcement patterns, including a September 19, 2025, confrontation in Broadview, Illinois, where federal agents engaged demonstrators protesting a surge in ICE activity in the Chicago area. That enforcement campaign, dubbed Operation Midway Blitz by the Trump administration, illustrates the scale of targeted operations that have drawn public scrutiny.

The ACLU’s report highlights a documented pattern of aggressive tactics in immigration enforcement that extends beyond intended targets to include citizens, children, and bystanders. With over 1,200 operations reviewed and nearly 400 incidents each involving physical force and weapon use, the findings suggest systemic issues in how ICE conducts its operations. The recent fatal shootings—occurring while officers lacked body cameras and involved individuals not previously targeted—underscore the real-world consequences of these tactics. Experts warn that without transparency, proper training, and supervisory accountability, such incidents are likely to continue.

The report’s timing is coming during heightened immigration enforcement and public protests. The reliance on car stops, which differ from traditional targeted raids, introduces new risks, especially when officers lack specialized training. The absence of official data from DHS—forcing a civil liberties group to compile this information—raises questions about government accountability in a domain that directly affects civil rights and public safety.