Opinion: ICE impersonators reveal how official policy is creating abuse for all immigrants

The escalation between the civilians protesting the immigration raids in California is just the latest example of how the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration agenda—restricting entry, increasing detentions, rushing deportations and promoting hostile rhetoric—is creating an environment of confusion, fear and misinformation among migrants, regardless of their legal status. These attacks destabilize immigrant communities and send a message about what can permissibly be done to migrants, creating fertile ground for abuse. In recent months, we’ve seen more people pretend to be immigration agents to abuse immigrants. 

A few months ago, DHS director Tom Homan infamously stated of any undocumented immigrant living in the U.S., “you got a problem,” and that they “should be afraid” because "there is no safe haven." His words were literal; President Trump lifted a policy that prevented sensitive places like courthouses, churches and schools from ICE enforcement. This rhetoric has been paired with equally aggressive enforcement tactics. Add to these similar incidents the admitted errors federal authorities have made in deporting migrants to third countries, the numerous cases of immigrants being detained unexpectedly and without warrants at immigration courts and the repression of any person who wants to speak out and protest, as is happening in Los Angeles.

Together, these words and actions have instilled widespread fear—not only among undocumented migrants, but also among documented immigrants—and blurred the line between legitimate enforcement and outright persecution.

This climate of fear has empowered opportunists. For some, the administration’s language and actions are a green light to act against migrants, no matter their status. For others, it offers an opportunity to exploit them. 

Across the U.S., reports have risen of people impersonating ICE agents and engaging in extortion, detainment and harassment against foreign-born community members. In some cases, videos have surfaced of men wearing ICE t-shirts, mocking migrants’ accents, and harassing them in public spaces. At Temple University, a group of men—one of them a student—entered a residential hall pretending to be ICE agents. Even more horrifying was a case involving a man who impersonated an ICE agent and attempted to sexually assault a woman, threatening to deport her if she resisted. In another similar case, the woman actually was raped.

These incidents reflect a disturbing trend: the impersonation of state power by civilians emboldened by the rhetoric and actions of the state itself. The techniques the federal government is deploying to deport people are similar to the actions of those who want to harm migrants. It has now reached the point that ordinary citizens seem to believe that they can use the government’s arguably legitimate (if deeply authoritarian and terrorizing) actions to justify their own wholly illegal behavior. 

This phenomenon is not isolated to the U.S. In my own research with migrants in transit through Mexico, I documented similar patterns of abuse. Migrants were routinely scammed when changing their currency, offered fake rides to avoid checkpoints, promised false salary and work conditions, and extorted for bribes and sexual favors from people they encounter during their journeys in Mexico. 

Migrants often believed that those threatening them had the power to make good on their threats, even if what was threatened was illegal, because they were acting in the context of Mexico’s increasingly hostile immigration enforcement system. On more than one occasion, a migrant recalled episodes of violence, torture and robbery that I assumed were committed by criminal organizations, only to learn during the interview that local police or immigration officials were often responsible. Moreover, at multiple times, migrants were unable to discern if the person extorting or abusing them was an immigration officer, police agent or criminal. 

Just as we are seeing now in the U.S., the abuse of state power towards immigrants has become a green light to lawbreakers to exploit the climate of fear and persecution for their own gain.

To be sure, U.S. immigration authorities have not said that civilians should persecute migrants, much less abuse them. The closest we have has come from a Republican state representative in Missouri who proposed paying migrant “bounty hunters” $1,000 for “helping” ICE detain undocumented immigrants. But when a state uses tactics like those currently being deployed, turning fear into a policy tool, it creates a climate where abuse becomes not only possible but inevitable.

The spread of ICE impersonations and immigration-related scams is not merely a side effect of flawed policy—it is a symptom of a larger systemic failure. When government actions verge on the extreme, when protection becomes selective and accountability disappears, it invites others to mimic authority and exploit it. In this chaotic and dangerous context, the evidence suggests that the message of “no safe haven” begins to take on a new meaning: migrants are not only unprotected, they can be targeted by anyone.