The recent killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti during the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis are the latest in a pattern of dangerous, reckless law enforcement tactics that are terrorizing communities, costing lives, trampling on Americans’ constitutional rights, violating the law, and undermining actual immigration enforcement.
Since the start of the second term, the Trump administration has launched a series of immigration enforcement operations involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and other federal law enforcement agencies. These operations—involving masked, unidentified agents using aggressive tactics against both U.S. citizens and immigrants—have caused chaos across the United States. Many of these operations have been targeted against President Donald Trump’s political opponents, deploying large roving task forces to cities and states run by Democratic officials.
As an immediate next step, the Trump administration must pull ICE and U.S. Border Patrol agents out of Minneapolis and fire Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem in order to prevent further tragedies in Minnesota. But the problems with this administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are far more widespread and demand meaningful reforms and accountability from Congress.
To immediately reform the Department of Homeland Security, the Center for American Progress recommends the following commonsense measures:
- DHS must be held to the same standard as local police and wear uniforms that clearly identify their agency, be unmasked, and be equipped with body-worn cameras during public enforcement actions.
- DHS must reform hiring, screening, and training to remove unqualified personnel.
- DHS personnel must be held accountable for improper uses of force and allegations of misconduct.
- DHS must preserve Americans’ constitutional rights and operate within the rule of law.
- DHS must enhance accountability to Congress and the public.
This militarized, unaccountable behavior by the Trump administration’s DHS and other federal law enforcement agencies is unlawful and unsafe. As their mission becomes increasingly politicized, these agencies are behaving more like regime secret police than federal law enforcement officials protecting the American public. It is critical that Congress, the courts, and a future administration demand and implement real reforms that keep our communities safe, protect rights and freedoms, and prevent overreach and abuse.
DHS must be held to the same standard as local police and wear uniforms that clearly identify their agency, be unmasked, and be equipped with body-worn cameras during public enforcement actions
The reckless actions of ICE, CBP, and other federal law enforcement agencies during these raids have undermined the legitimacy of and public trust in law enforcement more broadly. State and local police from jurisdictions across the country, many of which have spent years building trusted relationships with communities, are seeing those relationships jeopardized by federal deployments that have made people, particularly immigrants, more cautious about engaging with the police and the legal system. Eroding trust in police makes communities less safe because effective public safety depends on cooperation between residents and law enforcement. When trust and law enforcement legitimacy break down, people are less likely to report crimes or cooperate with investigations—making it harder to solve crimes, hold offenders accountable, and prevent future violence.
Just, effective policing requires that law enforcement officers and their operations be safe, transparent, and accountable. The behavior and tactics of DHS in recent immigration enforcement raids are unsafe and inconsistent with policing best practices. Allowing masked, unidentifiable, heavily armed agents to detain and abduct people off the street creates chaos in communities, puts both law enforcement and bystanders at risk of violence, encourages unprofessional behavior and misconduct, and hinders accountability. This is why legislators in multiple states are working to pass bills, similar to California’s recent legislation, that require officers in public enforcement actions be clearly identifiable and not wear facial coverings outside of specific exemptions such as a clear health or environmental hazard or if the officer works undercover and could be compromised.
Body-worn cameras are becoming standard across many state and local police as a way to encourage professionalism while protecting both residents from abuse and law enforcement from unfounded accusations. Federal law enforcement, including CBP and ICE, had been rolling out cameras across their workforce over the past several years. However, the Trump administration deliberately hamstrung the ICE body-worn camera program, even going so far as to urge Congress to cut the funding for the program by 75 percent even after receiving billions of dollars in additional funding to recruit new enforcement personnel. This growth in personnel while undercutting the body-worn camera program puts communities and law enforcement at risk and prevents accountability for wrongdoing.
Recommended reforms
- Congress should prohibit federal law enforcement officers from wearing facial coverings to conceal their faces and identities, with exceptions for health, environmental, and operational hazards and protection of undercover officers.
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- Congress should require federal law enforcement officers to wear uniforms that clearly identify the officer’s agency and provide a personal identifier, such as a name or badge number, for any public enforcement action. Officers must also be required to provide this information upon request.
- Congress should require body-worn cameras for all federal law enforcement officers conducting public enforcement actions. Congress should provide specific resources to both the camera systems as well as to the offices that manage and release footage and require supervisors to regularly blind audit operational camera footage to ensure professional behavior.
- Congress should require federal law enforcement to publicly release any body-worn camera footage for any incident involving serious bodily injury or deaths in custody.
DHS must reform hiring, screening, and training to remove unqualified personnel
Ensuring that federal law enforcement operations are safe, transparent, and accountable requires hiring highly qualified candidates and providing them with comprehensive training at the academy and in the field. The Trump administration has been intent on rapidly expanding ICE recruitment and hiring, loosening some hiring and training standards and placing other law enforcement agents and the public at risk. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) effectively triples ICE’s budget and allocates nearly $30 billion specifically to support a hiring surge for new personnel including officers. The Trump administration is already claiming that it has hired 12,000 new ICE personnel. To support this hiring surge, ICE is recruiting candidates who are unqualified for law enforcement positions, have failed to meet and complete screening requirements, and have failed physical or academic standards. There are also growing fears of extremists joining the ranks. This fear is heightened by the Trump administration’s repeated use of extremist dog whistles in its recruitment materials.
With the efforts to get ICE officers on the street to carry out the Trump administration’s cruel immigration agenda, ICE has cut training down for new recruits from around five months to 42 days. This means thousands of new federal law enforcement personnel are on the streets with less training on immigration and criminal law, use of force, deescalation, and standard law enforcement tactics. When CBP went through a hiring surge and nearly doubled its force between 2005 and 2011, the agency saw an increase in use-of-force complaints, racist incidents, and eventually convictions of former agents for crimes including kidnapping, sexual assault, and accepting bribes.
In addition to the tragic shootings, DHS agents have been quick to escalate situations by utilizing less-lethal devices or vehicles, breaking vehicle windows, and even throwing flash-bangs for enforcement actions. Multiple recent DHS-involved shootings over the past year involve agents firing at vehicles, a tactic discouraged by most policing agencies. These dangerous tactics put community members and law enforcement at risk, are inconsistent with the best practices in public order policing, and likely violate agency use-of-force policies.
Recommended reforms
- Congress should reinstate the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database that was terminated by President Trump. This database allowed for the centralized collection and reporting of misconduct information, making it easier to identify past misconduct allegations in the hiring process. This database should also include information related to any known affiliations with extremist groups.
- Congress should require DHS to report on all funding spent on recruitment campaigns including content, targeting, and recipients of funding. Congress should investigate DHS practices and policies aimed at preventing the recruiting and hiring of extremists.
- Congress should investigate DHS use-of-force policies, training, and reviews to ensure that existing policies are effective at limiting uses of force to specific, narrow contexts and that training and field practices are consistent with existing policies and best practices.
- DHS should issue a directive to all agents clarifying guidance related to key use-of-force policies including engaging with vehicles, prohibiting breaking vehicle windows without cause, and fulfilling an officer’s duty to intervene and render aid.
DHS personnel must be held accountable for improper uses of force and allegations of misconduct
Although independent investigations are standard practice for fatal police shootings, the Trump administration’s response to recent shootings by DHS, including the killing of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, have raised serious questions about the integrity of any federal use-of-force investigation. Following Renée Good’s killing, the Trump administration refused to cooperate with state and local investigators and moved to shut down any federal civil rights probe. Coordination with both DOJ and local law enforcement is common in a high profile law enforcement shooting, as state and local law enforcement will usually prosecute any state criminal violations and the federal government will take the lead on civil rights violations. The administration instead attempted to investigate Good’s wife for her activities. Instead of waiting for a full investigation, the Trump administration rushed to smear both Good and Pretti as a “domestic terrorist” and falsely claimed that federal law enforcement had immunity from state prosecution. After this politicized cover-up, federal prosecutors and the lead FBI agent on the case resigned. Following the killing of Alex Pretti, Homeland Security officers obstructed state and local investigators from securing the scene and gathering evidence, and the Trump administration has reportedly continued to refuse to cooperate with state investigators. This refusal to conduct thorough, impartial investigations before smearing the victim is a common practice with the administration. It is essential to hold individual officers accountable for misconduct and violations of policy, as well as criminal and civil rights violations.
Recommended reforms
- Investigations into uses of force, deaths in custody, and misconduct allegations must be independent, impartial, and comprehensive. Administration officials must not interfere or obstruct investigations and should ensure there is coordination between internal and interagency oversight bodies, including inspectors general, the offices of professional responsibility or internal affairs, the FBI, and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division (DOJ Civil Rights).
- Congress should require federal law enforcement to coordinate and share information on internal investigations with state and local law enforcement to the maximum extent possible, and federal law enforcement should defer to state and local law enforcement to address state criminal statutes.
- Congress should require that any lethal use of force or death in custody should automatically trigger a DOJ Civil Rights review of all available evidence to determine whether to open a formal civil rights investigation.
- Congress and the DOJ should rebuild, resource, and modernize DOJ Civil Rights to ensure that it can integrate modern technical tools into pattern or practice investigations and dedicate a pattern or practice team for reviews of federal law enforcement agencies that provides regular reports to Congress.
- Congress should require that the DOJ and DHS provide regular reports to Congress and the public on use-of-force incidents, internal reviews and investigations, and accompanying disciplinary actions and policy changes.
DHS must preserve Americans’ constitutional rights and operate within the rule of law
In its mission statement, DHS pledges to safeguard the American people, the homeland, and the nation’s values with honor and integrity. However, as made evident by media reports, citizen observers, and whistleblower disclosures, DHS has allowed ICE and CBP to operate in a manner that violates Americans’ constitutional rights and skirts the rule of law. DHS must preserve Americans’ constitutional rights and uphold the rule of law in its conduct.
No warrantless arrests
In January 2026, whistleblowers brought to light an ICE memo instructing agents that they can enter a person’s home to arrest them without a judicial warrant—instructions that constitutional scholars, immigration experts, and a federal judge agree violate the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unreasonable search and seizure. Although the memo was only recently made public, it was issued in May 2025 and whistleblower disclosures allege this unconstitutional policy is being implemented. ICE operations in Minneapolis seemingly confirmed that agents are acting unconstitutionally in accordance with this memo, as agents have conducted raids across the city, breaking into people’s homes and even detaining citizens, without judicial warrants.
ICE agents have tried to claim that their actions are authorized by their own administrative warrants, but this is false and misleading. Administrative warrants are issued by ICE and authorize officers to arrest an individual suspected of violating immigration law. These warrants are not signed by judges and administrative warrants do not give agents the authority to conduct door-to-door raids or enter citizens’ homes under the guise of searching for evidence of immigration law violations.
Stop citizen detentions and “Kavanaugh stops”
On numerous occasions, ICE has detained citizens as part of its operations, targeting individuals based on their appearance. The conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court wrongly greenlit the Trump administration’s racist and discriminatory “Kavanaugh stops” through its September 2025 order in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo. In their decision, the conservative justices, led by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, affirmed that federal agents can stop and detain a person based on their perceived ethnicity, spoken language, or occupation. (Justice Kavanaugh recently sought to backtrack this claim via footnote in Trump v. Illinois.) The use of “Kavanaugh stops” has added further fuel to the Trump administration’s out-of-control DHS practices resulting in unacceptable racial profiling of entire communities in enforcement operations.
Media reports and citizen testimony have made clear that ICE and CBP agents are widely using “Kavanaugh stops.” Many forceful abductions and detainments of U.S. citizens, including of children, happened despite individuals asserting they are citizens and having documents on them proving their citizenship status. It is critical to note that there is no legal requirement for U.S. citizens to carry documentation proving their citizenship status within the United States, and that even the possession of these documents upon confrontations with ICE agents has not prevented the detainment and kidnapping of citizens.
Some citizens have been deported while others have been detained for days. It is unclear how widespread ICE’s abduction and detention of citizens is, as the federal government does not track how often immigration agents hold American citizens. But according to Pro Publica investigative reporting, more than 170 citizens were detained by immigration agents in 2025.
No obstruction of citizens observing or recording
Americans have reported and documented numerous instances where ICE agents have violated their First Amendment rights to record and observe law enforcement. ICE agents have tried to use force and intimidation to try to stop citizens from recording, including calling their actions “illegal” and stealing their phones, detaining them for exercising their legal right to record, and even threatening to have them designated as a “domestic terrorist.”
Citizens’ rights to observe and record have perhaps never been more important than now, as many DHS agents have been operating without the use of body cameras and the administration has blatantly misrepresented facts and issued statements directly disputed by civilian video evidence and has doctored imagery related to DHS operations using artificial intelligence. Civilian video footage documenting the recent killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti has been vital in disputing the Trump administration’s false claims regarding the actions of ICE and CBP agents and those of protesters and ensuring that the American public can see what is truly unfolding across the country.
Comply with court orders
In clear violation of the rule of law, ICE and CBP under the Trump administration have repeatedly ignored or outright defied court orders in their efforts to deport individuals—including U.S. citizens—to other countries. The illegal deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, along with more than 200 others, to a notorious and deadly prison in El Salvador was carried out in clear violation of a federal court order and without due process. Since then, more deportations against court orders have occurred. For example, ICE deported to Laos a person who claimed to be a U.S. citizen, violating a federal court ruling that “recognized his substantial claim to citizenship and prohibited his removal.” In another instance, a college freshman who was flying out to visit family for Thanksgiving in Texas was arrested at an airport and then deported against a federal court order.
As communities grapple with horrific enforcement tactics of ICE and CBP across targeted cities, ICE and CBP’s blatant disregard of court orders is also on full display. In Chicago and Minnesota, federal court judges demanded that DHS leadership appear in person to address repeated violations of court orders. In Chicago, a group of journalists, protesters, and members of the clergy in a court filing informed U.S. District Judge Sara L. Ellis that ICE and CBP “repeatedly” defied federal court orders that limited the use of “riot control weapons” and fired pepper balls and used tear gas. In Minnesota, Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz recognized that ordering the head of ICE to personally testify was extraordinary and noted “but the extent of ICE’s violation of court orders is likewise extraordinary, and lesser measures have been tried and failed.”
Instead of ignoring the Constitution and laws that protect and strengthen American justice and accountability, the Department of Homeland Security must respect and uphold the rule of law and restore compliance with federal court orders and judgments promptly.
Recommended reforms
- DHS must immediately rescind the memorandum instructing agents that they can enter a person’s home without a judicial warrant and must issue a lawful directive notifying all agents of when it is constitutionally and legally permissible to enter a person’s home.
- DHS must investigate claims of Fourth Amendment violations and take official action against any ICE or CBP agent who has been reported or proved to have violated the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unreasonable search and seizure.
- Congress should mandate that DHS track and report citizen detainments, including but not limited to any instances in which a person detained claims to be a U.S. citizen and any verified instance of a citizen being detained. Congress should require that DHS transmit these reports to oversight committees.
- Congress should require that if a detained person or their lawyer provides proof of citizenship or legal residency such as a birth certificate, passport, or REAL ID, that ICE and CBP accept such documentation as bona fide proof of citizenship or legal residency and immediately release such person from detention or custody.
- Congress should pass protections that prohibit DHS from monitoring any citizen or legal resident who has been released from ICE or CBP custody.
- Congress should pass protections clarifying that a lack of documentation on a person’s body is not probable cause for detention and require DHS to start a clock on verifying any detained person’s status. For example, if a person asserts U.S. citizenship and DHS is unable to determine their citizenship status within three hours, they must be released from custody.
- Congress should pass legislation to prohibit racial profiling by federal law enforcement and put an end to so-called “Kavanaugh stops.” Such legislation should include explicit bans upon law enforcement stopping or detaining any person based on perceived race and ethnicity, spoken language, and occupation and include a private right of action for individuals who believe they were stopped and detained on such a basis.
- DHS must issue a directive to all ICE and CBP agents detailing Americans’ rights to observe and record, including that individuals are allowed to film any public law enforcement action, and that agents are prohibited from harassing or tracking citizens who film law enforcement and from seizing or damaging personal recording devices.
- DHS must issue official reprimands for any agent reported to have violated Americans’ rights to observe and record and retain any evidence of the agent violating the right to observe and record.
- Congress should hold DHS accountable for failing to comply with court orders, including by withholding, freezing, or rescinding agency funding for willful noncompliance.
- Congress should pass legislation to ensure that people have a civil right of action to recover damages when federal officers, or others operating under federal authority, violate their constitutional rights.
DHS must enhance accountability to Congress and the public
The Trump administration has gutted accountability and oversight offices designed to prevent DHS from violating rights, the law, and internal policies. In March 2025, the administration took steps to essentially dismantle multiple watchdog agencies that provided oversight of DHS, including the office responsible for overseeing immigration detention and the office responsible for ensuring the protection of civil rights. Following the gutting of these agencies, one investigation found there was nearly a 40 percent decline in the number of ICE detention facility inspections in 2025, which increases the possibility of abuse in these facilities going unnoticed and unaddressed.
The administration also demonstrated its failure to provide adequate oversight of DHS when it fired multiple inspectors general across the government in January 2025 but left in place the embattled DHS inspector general, Joseph Cuffari. An independent panel found in 2024 that Cuffari misled the Senate during his confirmation process by failing to disclose that he had previously been found to have run afoul of ethics rules when he worked in the Tucson, Arizona, office of the DOJ’s inspector general. By leaving in place officials found to have infringed ethics rules while working to destroy mechanisms designed to protect civil rights and monitor its detention practices, the Trump administration has demonstrated its disdain for public scrutiny and accountability.
The Trump administration has also thwarted multiple efforts by Congress to conduct oversight over immigration detention. Members of Congress have the right to enter immigration detention centers to conduct oversight but over the past year have been denied access to detention centers. The year 2025 marked one of the deadliest years in recent decades with more than 30 deaths of individuals in ICE custody, underscoring the urgent need for congressional oversight. Conditions at detention centers have raised serious concerns, with at least six reported deaths in ICE detention since the start of 2026. One recent death in ICE detention was ruled a homicide by asphyxia by the autopsy report, with a witness contradicting an initial DHS account of the incident. The Trump administration has regularly blocked congressional oversight: While traveling to Texas, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) was blocked from accessing detention centers in Dilley and Pearsall; in Minneapolis, Democratic U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar, Angie Craig, and Kelly Morrison of Minnesota were denied access after initially being allowed into the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building. Last year in California, Democratic Reps. Maxine Waters, Jimmy Gomez, and Norma Torres were also denied entry to a detention center.
Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security issued a memo restricting congressional oversight and implementing a new policy that requires members of Congress to give a minimum of seven days’ notice when they plan to visit a detention center. This memo was in response to a lawsuit from a group of congressional Democrats who sued over the Trump administration’s attempts to restrict access to detention facilities for oversight. The memo limits members of Congress’ ability to conduct oversight visits, an essential tool for ensuring accountability, transparency, and compliance with federal law within DHS detention centers. Federal appropriations law requires DHS to permit members of Congress to visit detention centers without prior notice, which DHS is trying to circumvent by limiting oversight of OBBBA-funded facilities.
Recommended reforms
- DHS should reinstate employees of the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) so that it may investigate allegations of violations of civil rights due to DHS activities as part of the lawful oversight of the agency.
- DHS should reinstate employees of the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman (OIDO) so that it may investigate, mitigate, and address issues in immigrant detention facilities as part of the lawful oversight of DHS activities.
- Congress should demand new senior leadership to the Office of the Inspector General at DHS to increase the ability to accurately conduct impartial investigations into current and future agency misconduct.
- Congress and DHS should clearly delineate roles and responsibilities between the Office of the Inspector General, the Office of Professional Responsibility, CRCL, and OIDO to avoid duplication of efforts and to ensure oversight issues and complaints are promptly addressed.
- Congress should ensure that all detention facilities are required to grant members of Congress immediate, unfettered access to allow congressional oversight, with no DHS circumvention for any OBBBA-funded detention operations.
Conclusion
Americans rightly expect the Department of Homeland Security to fairly and consistently enforce the law and actually do its job of protecting the homeland. However, the Trump administration’s DHS is operating with impunity as if it is above the law.
Congressional Republicans gave DHS an unaccountable slush fund for the Trump administration to abuse via the OBBBA. Congress must now rein in the Trump administration’s out-of-control DHS by requiring the agency to adopt commonsense reforms that will save lives.
Enforcing the law and complying with the law are not in conflict. DHS can effectively enforce immigration laws without violating statutory and constitutional rights, disobeying court orders, abducting people from their homes to send them to foreign gulags, and killing people on the streets.