A Message from the President of Americans Against Gun Violence

On the morning of April 7, 2026, ICE Agents shot Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez seven times after pulling him over as he was driving to work on a highway near Patterson, California. Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons claimed that Hernandez was a gang member wanted for questioning concerning a murder in El Salvador, that Hernandez “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run an officer over,” and that “our officers fired defensive shots to protect themselves, their fellow agents and the public.”[i] I believe that the evidence that is publicly available at the time of this writing does not support Lyons’ claims. Instead, as has been the case in multiple other statements issued by Trump administration officials following shootings committed by ICE and Border Patrol officers,[ii] I believe that the available evidence strongly suggests that Todd Lyons is lying.

Amazingly, Hernandez survived the shooting. He was taken to Doctor’s Medical Center in Modesto where he arrived in critical condition and underwent multiple surgeries for gunshot wounds to his face, extremities, and torso. He was released from the hospital on April 13 and taken immediately into custody by FBI agents and transported directly to the Stanislaus County Jail where he was charged with assaulting a federal officer.[iii] According to his attorney, Patrick Kolasinski, Hernandez had been in the ICU up to the time he was released and was “in no condition” to be transferred to a non-medical setting, much less to a jail cell.[iv] Kolasinski said Hernandez was unable to sit up without assistance and in excruciating pain at the time that he was discharged from the hospital.

Earlier, Kolasinski had acknowledged that Hernandez did not have legal immigrant status, but he disputed the claim that Hernandez was a gang member,[v] as did Patterson community members who know Hernandez.[vi] According to them, Hernandez is an immigrant from El Salvador who has been living in Patterson, a town in California’s agricultural Central Valley, for four years. Hernandez and his fiancée, who is a U.S. citizen, have a two year-old daughter. Hernandez’s attorney also denied that Hernandez was wanted for questioning in El Salvador or that he was under a deportation order.[vii] He said that Hernandez was commuting to his job in San Jose, California, when ICE agents pulled him over. Kolasinski noted that he had represented several other people arrested by ICE in recent months, and that it was typical for ICE agents to pull immigrants over without probable cause, order them out of their cars, arrest them on the spot, and take them directly to ICE detention centers.

By sheer coincidence, a passing motorist happened to record a video of ICE agents shooting Carlos Hernandez on her dashboard camera as she was driving past the place where ICE agents had pulled Hernandez over.[viii] The motorist initially feared retaliation if she revealed that she had recorded the video, but she later decided that it was her moral obligation to go public with it when she learned that the federal government’s version of what happened was not consistent with what she had seen, heard, and inadvertently recorded on her dashcam.[ix]

The dashcam video has been posted online.[x] It doesn’t include a sound track, but it clearly shows ICE agents flanking Hernandez’s SUV with at least one officer pointing a gun toward the driver. An unmarked pickup truck with flashing lights is parked close behind the SUV, but there are no ICE agents standing behind Hernandez’s vehicle. His SUV moves forward very slightly, then backs up, and as it does so, the passenger side front door scrapes the front of the pickup and is forced open. The SUV then moves forward, turning left toward the highway, as it appears that ICE agents on both sides of the vehicle are shooting into it. Instead of next turning right, though, to proceed onto the highway in the direction in which it was originally pointed, the SUV proceeds perpendicularly across the raised median, into the path of traffic coming from the opposite direction. The oncoming traffic slows to avoid a collision, and the video ends as the SUV reaches the shoulder on the opposite side of the road from which it was originally parked.

I don’t see any evidence in the dashcam video that Hernandez was trying to run over any of the ICE agents. On the contrary, I believe that the video provides strong evidence that he was intentionally trying to avoid hitting ICE agents by backing up, away from the agents, after he initially started to drive his vehicle forward.

Although the lack of a soundtrack on the dashcam video makes it difficult to determine with certainty when ICE agents first started shooting at Hernandez, the witness who recorded the dashcam video has stated that she believes they started shooting at him before he even tried to drive away.[xi] She also stated that after ICE agents shot Hernandez, she saw them pointing guns at herself and other drivers as they ordered witnesses to the shooting to keep on driving.[xii] Hernandez’s attorney has also stated that when he spoke with his client after he regained consciousness in the hospital, Hernandez himself said that he tried to drive away only after ICE agents started shooting at him first.[xiii]

I believe, though, that the question of whether ICE agents started shooting at Hernandez before or after he first tried to drive away is moot. In either case, I believe that Hernandez had good reason to fear for his life.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has acknowledged that at least 46 people have died in ICE detention facilities in the United States since Trump took office in 2025.[xiv] As I’ve noted above, though, and in previous Americans Against Gun Violence president’s messages concerning the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in January of this year, DHS officials have had a habit of lying about shootings related to ICE and Border Patrol operations.[xv] Since there’s no independent corroboration of the number of deaths in ICE detention facilities in the United States, the actual number of people who have died in ICE custody is unknown. And no one knows how many other people have died prematurely as a result of being arrested and “disappeared” by ICE to other countries, including to third world countries to which the deportees have no ties, and to prisons in countries with horrendous human rights records,[xvi] including to the brutal CECOT prison in El Salvador which has been described as “Hell on Earth,” and from which the only way out is said to be “in a coffin.”[xvii] Being an immigrant from El Salvador himself, Hernandez was probably well aware that if he didn’t escape the ICE agents who pulled him over, he might end up in CECOT.

The private companies who run – and profit from – the ICE detention facilities within the United States claim that conditions inside the facilities, including access to necessary medical care, meet the highest standards.[xviii] Anecdotal reports from families of people who have died in these facilities and from legislators who have visited them indicate otherwise. The Trump administration has sought to block legislators from making visits to ICE detention centers,[xix] but when legislators have been able to make such visits, they’ve found shockingly inhumane conditions, including extreme overcrowding, grossly inadequate and unsanitary toilet and washing facilities, insufficient and poor quality food, detainees sleeping on hard floors, other signs of psychological and physical abuse, and lack of access to basic necessary medical care.[xx] The DHS has responded to these reports with bombastic, politically charged denials, not with any objective evidence.[xxi]

The New York Times has documented multiple cases of persons held in detention facilities who died after their requests for appropriate medical care were denied.[xxii] Examples include a 56 year old Haitian man who died of sepsis after his complaints of a toothache were repeatedly ignored and a 39 year old man who died of sepsis after complaining of rectal pain for three weeks. During my long career as an emergency physician, I treated innumerable patients with apical dental abscesses and peri-anal abscesses. I know how easily curable these conditions are when treated early, and how painful they are and how serious they can become if left untreated. I can only imagine the torture that these detainees endured as their pleas for appropriate care were ignored while their conditions worsened from small, easily treatable, localized infections to full blown septic shock.

Even more disturbing, perhaps, is the New York Times report of the case of a 55 year old Cuban man whose death was attribute by DHS to suicide, but who was later ruled by a coroner to have died as a result of homicide.[xxiii] Members of the man’s family claim that fellow detainees had reported to them that guards choked the man to death and that two witnesses to the incident were subsequently given deportation notices, apparently in an effort by the federal government to prevent them from testifying in a wrongful death lawsuit.[xxiv]

As I noted in my previous messages about the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, shootings by ICE agents and Border Patrol officers have opened an entirely new category of officer-involved gun violence since the beginning of Trump’s second term as president. Fatal shootings by on-duty DHS officers include:

• March 15, 2025, South Padre Island, Texas: Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Jack Stevens shot and killed 23 year old Ruben Ray Martinez in his car, claiming Martinez had run over another officer. A video recorded by Stevens’ bodycam showed Martinez’s car moving very slowly at the time that Stevens shot him and no evidence that Martinez had struck or threatened anyone with his vehicle.[xxv]
• September 12, 2025, Chicago, Illinois: An unidentified ICE agent shot and killed Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, an undocumented immigrant who had just dropped his son off at school. Gonazlez was trying to drive away after ICE agents pulled him over and ordered him out of his car. DHS claimed the ICE officer acted in self defense after he was dragged by Gonzalez’s car and seriously injured. Videos don’t show the ICE officer being struck or dragged by the car, and the ICE officer is recorded telling a municipal policeman, “I got a cut, nothing major.”[xxvi]
• January 7, 2026, Minneapolis, Minnesota: ICE agent Jonathon Ross shot and killed Renee Good, a U.S. citizen, as she was attempting to drive away from the scene of a protest against a neighborhood sweep by ICE agents. DHS claimed Ross shot Good in self defense after she tried to run him over with her SUV and that Ross suffered serious injuries. Videos show Good steering away from Ross and don’t confirm that her SUV made any contact with Ross that might have caused a serious injury.[xxvii]
• January 24, 2026, Minneapolis, Minnesota: Unidentified Border Patrol officers shot and killed Alex Pretti, a U.S. citizen, after pinning him to the ground during a protest against an immigration enforcement raid. DHS claims Pretti was threatening them with a gun. Videos show no such threat.[xxviii]

There have also been numerous other non-fatal shootings by ICE agents since Trump began his second term as president. Following the killing of Renee Good, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported 13 cases in which ICE or Border Patrol agents shot at people inside their cars, including in the setting of protests against immigration raids.[xxix] In addition to the fatal shootings of Good and Gonzales, at least six other drivers, five of whom were U.S. citizens, suffered non-fatal gunshot wounds.

In one of these cases, U.S. Border Patrol agent Charles Exum shot 30-year-old Marimar Martinez, five times. Martinez is a U.S. citizen who was alerting Chicago suburb residents to ICE activities in their neighborhood. Exum claimed that he shot her in self defense after she had tried to ram his car with hers. Martinez suffered gunshot wounds to both legs and her right arm, but she was still able to drive away. She was later arrested and charged with assaulting a federal officer. The charges were dropped after video evidence, including videos from Exum’s own body camera, showed that he had rammed Martinez’s car with his, and after it was discovered that he had sent crude, misogynistic text messages to fellow officers boasting about shooting Martinez.

The WSJ authors reported that five of the other people who federal agents shot at in their vehicles were charged with assaulting federal officers, but charges were later dropped in every case in which video evidence was available. The authors noted that the available videos showed the same pattern in every case:

Agents box in a vehicle, try to remove an individual, block attempts to flee, then fire.

Other observers, including federal judges, attorneys, and civil rights advocates, have noticed another consistent pattern following shootings by ICE agents and Border Patrol officers. DHS officials and other Trump sycophants not only lie about what happened, they defame the innocent victims in hyperbolic terms.[xxx] At the time of this writing, a press release with Marimar Martinez’s name and picture is still up on the DHS website, claiming that she is a “domestic terrorist;” that she rammed a federal agent with her vehicle; that she was armed with a semi-automatic weapon; and that she “is currently in the custody of the FBI.”[xxxi] Martinez did have a semi-automatic handgun that she legally owned with her in the car, but she never brandished it. Exum didn’t know she had a gun in the car when he shot her five times, and she was not charged with any crime for having the gun with her.[xxxii]

Similarly, Trump administration officials reacted immediately to the killing of Alex Pretti by vilifying him[xxxiii] and claiming that the Border Patrol officers who killed him were acting in self-defense.[xxxiv] Like Martinez, Pretti had a handgun with him that he legally owned tucked into his waistband behind his back, but he never reached for the gun. Border Patrol officers didn’t realize he had a concealed handgun until about six of them had already pinned him to the ground face down, and they shot him 10 times after one of the officers had already taken possession of Pretti’s gun. Nevertheless, former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem claimed that Pretti “attacked” officers and was “brandishing” a gun, and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller called Pretti “an assassin” who “tried to murder federal agents.”[xxxv]

Renee Good did not have a gun or any other weapon with her in her SUV when Jonathon Ross shot and killed her. She was a mother of three children, including a six year old son she had dropped off at school shortly before she was killed.[xxxvi]  She had a bachelor’s degree in English and had won a prestigious prize for her poetry.[xxxvii] Friends, family, and neighbors described her as “a very welcomed member of our community,” “a warm and loving mother,” and “one of the kindest people I’ve ever known.”[xxxviii] After Jonathon Ross shot and killed her, though, former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem claimed that Good was a domestic terrorist,[xxxix] Donald Trump claimed in a social media post that she “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE officer”,[xl] and JD Vance claimed that she had committed “an attack on law and order” and “an attack on the American people.”[xli]

Although the Trump administration tries to create the impression that ICE officers are doing extremely dangerous work due to the constant threat of assaults by “domestic terrorists,” the data show that this is a false narrative. While there have been several shooting incidents involving Border Patrol Officers along the southern border of the United States, attacks on ICE agents or Border Patrol officers involved in immigration raids in the U.S. interior are rare.

On September 24, 2025, a lone sniper opened fire on the ICE immigration enforcement processing facility in Dallas, Texas, with the intent of shooting ICE personnel.[xlii] The only people hit by the sniper, though, were three detainees, one of whom was killed.

Since 2003, with the single exception of an ICE agent who shot and killed himself, no ICE agent or Border Patrol officer performing immigration enforcement operations has been killed in the line of duty.[xliii] On the contrary, a report by the Cato Institute shows that the risk of an average U.S. civilian being murdered is 5.5 times greater than the risk of an ICE agent or Border Patrol officer being killed in the line of duty. The ICE “Wall of Honor” website lists all ICE agents who died in the line of duty since from 1915 through 2024.[xliv] All but four of the agents who died since 2020 died of complications related to COVID infections attributed to their exposures in ICE detention centers. Three other agents died of cancer attributed to exposure to carcinogens while investigating the 2001 World Trade Center terrorist attack. The death of the fourth agent, as noted above, was due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound from his own service weapon as a result of what the “Wall of Honor” describes as an “accidental discharge.”

In the title of this message, I used the word, “senseless,” to describe the shooting of Alex Hernandez and other victims by ICE agents. The word, “senseless” may be too polite. “Sadistic” may be a more appropriate adjective to describe the manner in which Hernandez, a father of a two year old daughter, engaged to be married, living and working peacefully and productively in the United States after escaping from a violent environment in El Salvador, was pulled over by ICE agents as he was commuting to his job; was shot seven times when he tried to escape from them; and after miraculously surviving the shooting, was charged with assaulting a federal officer and transferred, too weak to sit up unaided and in excruciating pain, from an ICU bed to a jail cell.

I think the word, “sadistic,” is also an appropriate descriptor for the manner in which Renee Good, while protesting peacefully against an ICE raid in her neighborhood, was ordered by one ICE agent to “Get out of the f—ing car,” then was shot and killed as she was trying to drive away by another ICE agent who muttered, “F—ing bitch,” immediately after he killed her.[xlv]

I believe that “sadistic” is also an appropriate adjective for the manner in which Alex Pretti was shot 10 times by ICE agents after being pinned helplessly to the ground by a half dozen of them;[xlvi] for the manner in which Charles Exum shot Marimar Martinez five times after ramming her car with his own vehicle, then bragged in a crude, misogynistic manner to his colleagues about shooting her; for the grossly inhumane manner in which approximately 60,000 immigrants, the vast majority of whom have no criminal record, are currently being held in ICE detention centers in the United States;[xlvii] and for the manner in which the Trump administration has deported more than 600,000 other immigrants under the blatantly false pretense that “70%” were “dangerous criminal illegal aliens” including “gang members, rapists, kidnappers, and drug traffickers.”[xlviii] It has been well-documented, including in previous studies sponsored by the National Institute of Justice, that undocumented immigrants have a lower rate of involvement in criminal activity, including violent crime, than U.S. born residents,[xlix] and that the vast majority of undocumented immigrants deported during the beginning of Trump’s second term in office have had no criminal record other than minor traffic offenses.[l]

Regardless of whether the behavior described above meets the strict definition of being sadistic, it is flagrantly unconstitutional. And constitutional rights apply to everyone in our country, not just U.S. citizens.[li] The behavior by federal agents that I’ve described above and in previous Americans Against Gun Violence president’s messages clearly violates the Article I, Section 9 constitutional guarantee of the right of habeas corpus, the First Amendment rights to free speech, freedom of the press, freedom of peaceful assembly, and freedom to petition the government for redress; the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure; the Fifth Amendment guarantee of due process and protection against self-incrimination; the Sixth Amendment guarantee of a speedy and public trial and representation by counsel; the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment; and the Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection under the law. A lawsuit filed by the state of Minnesota against the DHS also notes that the Trump administration’s deployments of massive numbers of federal ICE agents and Border Control officers into states without the states’ consent is a violation of the Tenth Amendment guarantee of state sovereignty.[lii]

The Trump administration is clearly engaging in “gaslighting” when it accuses those who protest its own unconstitutional actions of being “domestic terrorists,” of threatening the rule of “law and order,” and of “attacking the American people.” The ICE agents and Border Patrol officers themselves are the ones who are guilty of terrorizing immigrant neighborhoods, displaying flagrant disregard for the rule of law and order, and threatening the American people. Scapegoating minority groups; creating a false illusion of imminent danger from within and a need to sacrifice human rights to squelch that threat; spewing blatant lies laden with pseudo-patriotic and pseudo-religious gibberish; and giving virtually unlimited power and immunity to paramilitary groups are classic techniques used by fascist dictators to consolidate their authoritarian power.[liii]

The subtitle to this message, “When will they be held accountable?” remains an open question. Up to the time of this writing, no ICE or Border patrol agent has even been charged with a crime, much less convicted of one, for any of the shootings I’ve described, nor has anyone been charged with a crime for the abuse and neglect documented at immigration detention centers. Obviously, there’s no hope that anyone in the Trump administration is going to hold ICE agents and Border Patrol officers accountable as they do Trump’s bidding. Since I posted my president’s messages about the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, though, there has been at least a bit of positive news.

After being blocked by the Trump administration from even participating in gathering evidence following the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in January, Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison and Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced on March 24 that they were suing the Trump Administration for access to the evidence that the federal government had gathered and was withholding from them; and Moriarty stated that she was prepared to make a decision on prosecuting the killers even if her office didn’t receive any cooperation from the federal government.[liv]

There was also enough concern about the shootings in Minneapolis among U.S. Senators in January for a majority of them to vote to withhold any further funding for ICE operations until at least limited reforms were instituted. Reforms sought by Democrats included requiring ICE agents to be unmasked, to wear body cameras, to stop conducting “roving patrols,” and to first obtain official judicial warrants before entering homes. The vote proved to be largely symbolic, though, as Congress had already appropriated an historic $75 billion for ICE operations in 2025, $65 billion more than in any previous year.[lv] As a result of the 2025 windfall, the refusal of the Senate to provide additional funding for ICE this year has had little if any effect on ICE operations.

Another big question that I didn’t bother to include in the title of this message but that I’m sure you’ve been asking yourself, just as I’ve been asking myself, is what can we do as individuals to not only stop the shootings and other abuses by ICE agents and Border Patrol officers, but to reverse the greater problem of the decline of our country from a democratic society – albeit a somewhat flawed one – toward a full-fledged fascist dictatorship. While I don’t have a definitive answer to this question, I do have some suggestions.

First and foremost, we must not be silent. We should take heed from the words of the Protestant minister, Martin Nimöeller, who, like many other good Germans,  remained silent for far too long during the rise of Hitler. Nimöeller ended up spending seven years in Nazi prisons and concentration camps. After he was freed by Allied forces in 1945, he said:[lvi]

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.

We can all participate in public protests against the abuses and lies of the Trump administration, including the scapegoating of immigrants. We can visit, call, and/or write to our members of Congress and demand reforms in immigration enforcement far more extensive than the limited measures listed above that Democrats have already requested.

Reforms should include the release from ICE detention facilities of all immigrants who have not committed serious crimes (or who have committed crimes less serious than the felonies that Trump himself has been convicted of committing);[lvii] regular inspections and reports of conditions at ICE detention centers by agencies that are entirely independent of the Trump administration and that don’t profit from building and running these centers; cessation of all traffic stops by ICE and Border Patrol except in cases in which a suspect presents a clear and imminent danger to the public; stringent restriction of the use of lethal force by ICE and Border Patrol and prosecution of agents and officers who violate these restrictions; and guarantees that DHS and its agents will respect the constitutional rights enumerated above of all US residents, including the rights of undocumented immigrants. And when ICE agents and Border Patrol officers commit shootings as senseless, if not downright sadistic, as those that I’ve described above, if the U.S. Justice Department won’t prosecute them, we should urge our state attorneys general and local district attorneys to prosecute them.

There are also local organizations we can get involved in and other individual actions we can take, depending on our own personal skill sets.  As I mentioned in a previous president’s message, there’s an organization in my own community that has set up a rapid response network that keeps people informed about ICE activities in our area; that provides information about constitutional rights and how to assert them; that provides legal assistance for individuals detained or arrested by ICE; and that even helps immigrants with home and auto repairs and grocery shopping. In my own case, on Saturdays, when my wife often participates in protest marches, I volunteer as a physician at a free clinic where most of our patients are undocumented immigrants.

In the case of Carlos Hernandez, there’s also another individual action you can take if you like. In doing research for this message, I came across a “Go Fund Me” site for the Hernandez family. I made a donation myself, but when the option of whether to display my name with my donation came up, I clicked on the button to not display my name. After I came across the Martin Nimöeller quote, though, I decided to make another donation, but this time, I clicked the button to display my name alongside my donation. A few minutes later, when my name popped up with my donation on the Go Fund Me website, I thought Nimöeller would be proud.

I’ll conclude this message with the same quote from the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy that I used in a previous message because it’s one that I think is highly relevant to current times and bears repeating. (The quote is from Robert F. Kennedy senior, not his son, RFK junior, who might have turned out differently if his father hadn’t been assassinated when he was 14 years old). In a speech that Senator Kennedy delivered in Capetown, South Africa in June of 1966, he said:

Each time a [person] stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, [that person] sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.[lviii]

Thanks for your support of Americans Against Gun Violence. And thanks for creating a “ripple.”

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Bill Durston, M.D.

President, Americans Against Gun Violence

Note: Dr. Durston is a former expert marksman in the U.S. Marine Corps, decorated for “courage under fire” during service in combat in the Vietnam War. Following his military service, Bill became an emergency physician. Since retiring from working in the ER, he has been volunteering at a free clinic affiliated with the University of California Davis medical school where many of the patients are undocumented immigrants.

Click on this link for a copy of this president’s message in PDF format.

References

[i] Soumya Karlamangla and Hamed Aleaziz, “ICE Agents Shoot Into a Car, Injuring a Suspect in Northern California,” U.S., The New York Times, April 7, 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/us/shooting-ice-california.html.

[ii] Bill Durston, “Will and ICE Agent Get Away With Murder in Minneapolis? And Can We Save Our Democracy?,” Americans Against Gun Violence President’s Message, January 21, 2025, https://aagunv.org/president-message/; Durston, “Will and ICE Agent Get Away With Murder in Minneapolis? And Can We Save Our Democracy?”

[iii] “Man Shot by ICE in California Faces Charges of Assaulting a Federal Officer with His Car,” CNN, April 14, 2026, https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/14/us/ice-shooting-california-assault-car.

[iv] Lisa Fernandez, “California Man Shot 7 Times by ICE Arrested by FBI, Attorney Says,” Text.Article, KTVU FOX 2, KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco, April 13, 2026, https://www.ktvu.com/news/california-man-shot-7-times-ice-discharged-from-hospital-attorney-says.

[v] Graham Womack, “Man Shot by ICE in Patterson ‘Absolutely Not a Gang Member,’ Family Attorney Says,” The Sacramento Bee, April 8, 2026, https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article315335981.html.

[vi] Trevor Morgan et al., “Attorney for Family of Man Shot by ICE in Patterson Says He’s Alive and ‘Stable,’” The Sacramento Bee, April 9, 2026, https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article315328322.html#campaignName=sacramento_afternoon_newsletter&linkType=nmeintro.

[vii] Lauren Mascarenhas et al., “ICE Agents Shoot and Wound Man during Traffic Stop in Central California,” CNN, April 7, 2026, https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/07/us/stanislaus-ca-ice-shooting.

[viii] Karlamangla and Aleaziz, “ICE Agents Shoot Into a Car, Injuring a Suspect in Northern California.”

[ix] Kathleen Quinn, “Witness Comes Forward in Patterson ICE Shooting. What She Says She Saw, Heard,” The Sacramento Bee, April 10, 2026, https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article315368782.html?__vfz=medium%3Dconversations_top_pages.

[x] Karlamangla and Aleaziz, “ICE Agents Shoot Into a Car, Injuring a Suspect in Northern California.”

[xi] Quinn, “Witness Comes Forward in Patterson ICE Shooting. What She Says She Saw, Heard.”

[xii] Lisa Fernandez, “New Witness Saw ICE Shooting in California, Provides Dashcam Video,” Text.Article, KTVU FOX 2, KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco, April 10, 2026, https://www.ktvu.com/news/new-witness-saw-ice-shooting-california-provides-dashcam-video.

[xiii] Mascarenhas et al., “ICE Agents Shoot and Wound Man during Traffic Stop in Central California.”

[xiv] Jazmine Ulloa et al., “Deaths in ICE Custody Are Growing. ‘They Let Him Rot in There.,’” U.S., The New York Times, March 29, 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/29/us/ice-detention-deaths-immigrants.html.

[xv] Durston, “Will and ICE Agent Get Away With Murder in Minneapolis? And Can We Save Our Democracy?”; Bill Durston, “A Second Fatal DHS Shooting in Minneapolis: An Update from the President of Americans Against Gun Violence,” Americans Against Gun Violence, January 27, 2026, https://aagunv.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/1-27-26-Update-on-ICE-in-Minneapolis.pdf.

[xvi] Sarah Stillman, “Disappeared to a Foreign Prison,” Annals of Immigration, The New Yorker, November 24, 2025, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/12/01/disappeared-to-a-foreign-prison.

[xvii] Sergio Martinez-Beltran and Manuel Rueda, “‘Hell on Earth’: Venezuelans Deported to El Salvador Mega-Prison Tell of Brutal Abuse,” NPR, July 27, 2025, https://www.npr.org/2025/07/27/nx-s1-5479143/hell-on-earth-venezuelans-deported-to-el-salvador-mega-prison-tell-of-brutal-abuse.

[xviii] Ulloa et al., “Deaths in ICE Custody Are Growing. ‘They Let Him Rot in There.’”

[xix] Zach Montague, “Judge Allows Policy Restricting Lawmakers’ Access to ICE Facilities,” U.S., The New York Times, January 20, 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/us/politics/ice-detention-lawmakers-oversight.html.

[xx]Jon Osoff, The Abuse of Pregnant Women & Children in U.S. Immigration Detention (Office of Senator Jon Osoff, 2025), 8. Jerod MacDonald-Evoy, “Surprise Inspection Finds ICE Stuffing Migrants ‘like Sardines’ into a Facility with No Bed, Showers,” Arizona Mirror, April 10, 2026, https://azmirror.com/2026/04/10/ice-overcrowding-like-sardines-congressional-oversight-arizona/; Alex Padilla and Cory Booker, “Padilla, Booker Announce Legislation Cracking Down on Cruel ICE Detention Facilities and Practices,” Press Re;Ease, January 26, 2026, https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-booker-announce-legislation-cracking-down-on-cruel-ice-detention-facilities-and-practices/; Fidel Martinez, “Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost Visited ‘Alligator Alcatraz.’ This Is What He Saw,” Los Angeles Times, July 18, 2025, https://www.latimes.com/delos/newsletter/2025-07-18/alligator-alcatraz-rep-maxwell-frost-florida.

[xxi] “DHS Debunks Alligator Alcatraz Hoaxes | Homeland Security,” Wahsington, DC, August 14, 2025, https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/08/14/dhs-debunks-alligator-alcatraz-hoaxes; “DHS Debunks Georgia Senator’s False Allegations About ICE Detention Centers | Homeland Security,” Department of Homeland Security, Washington DC, August 7, 2025, https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/08/07/dhs-debunks-georgia-senators-false-allegations-about-ice-detention-centers.

[xxii] Ulloa et al., “Deaths in ICE Custody Are Growing. ‘They Let Him Rot in There.’”

[xxiii] Pooja Salhotra, “Death of Cuban Detainee in El Paso ICE Facility Is Ruled a Homicide,” U.S., The New York Times, January 22, 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/21/us/el-paso-ice-detainee-homicide.html.

[xxiv] Pooja Salhotra, “Cuban Immigrant Was Killed in ICE Custody, Family Says in Legal Filing,” U.S., The New York Times, January 21, 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/us/politics/cuban-immigrant-death-ice-custody.html.

[xxv] “Bodycam Video Raises Questions in Fatal Shooting of US Citizen by DHS Agent,” Scripps News, March 7, 2026, https://www.scrippsnews.com/us-news/new-video-questions-dhs-account-of-fatal-shooting-by-immigration-agent.

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