New report details dozens of federal immigration agents with violent records

A new report by the Pacific Antifascist Research Collective has identified 29 current or former agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) with documented convictions, arrests, or credible allegations of serious violent and sexual crimes. 

The collective describes itself as “an autonomous group of anti-fascists dedicated to providing communities from the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean with research and tools to protect themselves from fascism in all its forms.” 

Lynn Tramonte, executive director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance says this only compounds the public safety threat posed by federal immigration enforcement and national anti-immigrant rhetoric.

“When I saw the list of 29 ICE and Border Patrol agents with violent and sexual criminal histories, it was overwhelming,” Tramonte told ACoM. “And now DHS is rushing to recruit and hire more individuals without properly vetting them. To me it was like screaming, ‘We already had this problem with violent agents staying on the job for years. Now we’re adding more unknowns.’ The public doesn’t deserve a federal enforcement agency with so many criminals in its ranks.”

Criminal Histories of Federal Immigration Agents

Among immigration agents named are Andrew Golobic, a Cincinnati ICE supervisor sentenced in March 2025 to 12 years in prison for sexually coercing women under his authority; and Samuel Saxon, assistant field office director in Cincinnati, charged in late 2025 with sustained domestic violence against his partner, including broken bones and strangulation. Saxon’s alleged victim is also an immigrant, Tramonte noted, underscoring the complexity and gravity of the allegations. “It’s frightening that two of them are from Ohio,” she said.

Others on the list include immigration agents convicted or charged with child sexual abuse, kidnapping, rape, torture, and child-sex trafficking. Two are from Southern California, including Jacob Olivas, who got a life sentence in 2023 for rape and “systematic torture of women.” Olivas and others used their ICE credentials to intimidate or evade accountability.

Tramonte, whose organization helped disseminate the report, said the list is not just a catalogue of misconduct. It is also a sign of systemic issues. 

“We wanted people to see it’s not just one bad apple,” she said. “There are seriously dangerous people employed for years. If hiring continues without vetting, this problem’s only going to get worse.”

Tramonte worked for a time as a consultant with the now-shuttered Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) agency. After 9/11 INS was reorganized into the new Department of Homeland Security. It is essentially the precursor to ICE and Border Patrol. 

“There was a lot more of a spirit of collaboration between the programs that were responsible for enforcing laws and [those] administering visas and naturalization,” she said. “When they created ICE and DHS, they really sharpened the mission to just be about getting rid of as many people as possible. And the tactics that they’re using became violent.” 

In Ohio: A community criminalized 

The Ohio Immigrant Alliance works with local coalitions opposing ICE contracts with county jails. It also runs a statewide hotline for reporting jail abuses. “We get calls all the time,” Tramonte said. “We want the American people to know what is being done with their tax dollars, which is to put people in prison who don’t belong there.”

Tramonte’s advocacy with the Ohio Immigrant Alliance focuses not only on monitoring abuses among federal personnel. It also focuses on immigration detention practices statewide. 

“Our biggest issue right now is trying to end immigration detention,” she said. “It’s wrong to put people in a criminal jail when they haven’t been charged with crimes, much less convicted and sentenced. The government uses detention as a weapon to make people give up their immigration cases.”

The report comes as federal rhetoric and enforcement has put immigrant communities nationwide on alert, particularly Haitians in Ohio. 

“People thought they had found a safe place to live in Springfield. It’s welcoming—they love that Haitians are filling jobs and keeping the city’s economy alive. But the community is terrified of a mass action. People are tired of running… sending them back to Haiti now means sending them back to gangs and lawlessness.”

Fears of looming operation

Tramonte says that in Springfield, fears of looming large-scale immigration raids are circulating. She says she has heard rumors that February 4th might be the date of that operation. She has not been able to confirm that date. 

What she can confirm is that Haitians are already being harassed by law enforcement. 

“Haitian people have definitely been arrested at check-ins and arrested at court. There is a real problem with people who are stopped at the side of the road for having car trouble. Instead of the police bringing them a mechanic or helping them get a tow and sending them on their way, the police are calling ICE and the border patrol. Haitians who’ve been trying to go to work have been arrested just for being on the side of the road with car trouble,” she said.

Immigration Enforcement and Public Debate

The national conversation on immigration enforcement has broadened. Data shows ICE arrests in Ohio and nationwide spiked after the Trump administration increased daily ICE arrest quotas. The move frees immigration agents to focus on non-criminal arrests for immigration violations, which are civil offenses rather than crimes.

However, federal officials often defend enforcement as public safety work. In a recent interview, Ohio U.S. Rep. Max Miller characterized ICE’s work as focused on those posing the greatest threat to safety. The claim is disputed by immigrant advocates who point to the increasing number of civil immigration arrests and enforcement actions.

Tramonte says it’s not only ironic, but counter to public safety that the federal government would employ convicted rapists and criminals to go after community members they broadly describe as rapists and criminals. 

She recounts being a young woman learning how to drive. Her father told her to never pull over for an unmarked car, or to avoid masked men pursuing her. 

“ICE is using all of the tactics of the criminals against us. And we’re just supposed to trust that they are a federal agent and not just some kidnapper dressed up like ICE,” says Tramonte.

“When we say that they’re bringing terror to the communities, that’s another element of it,” says Tramonte. “Women are trained to protect ourselves when we’re in public, and now ICE is using the tools of criminals to arrest people. Then if somebody resists arrest because they don’t know who they’re being kidnapped by, they get charged, they get thrown to the ground, they get shot.”

Chris Alam is a California Local News Fellow with the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.