On today’s show, host Douglas Haynes speaks with Nicole Foy, a reporter with ProPublica, about her recent reporting on ICE sweeps and the growing number of US citizens who are being detained by federal immigration agents. Her story on the abuses these citizens face while federal custody spurred Congressional democrats to announce a joint-investigation last week.
Foy found that more than 170 citizens (a likely undercount) have been detained by immigration agents, 50 of whom were detained because of questions about their citizenship. But the other 130 and more people were detained after protests on accusations of assaulting officers, impeding arrests, and other instances in which their citizenship was not in question. These folks were also detained violently, pulled from their cars, tased, and even shot. 
To obtain this count, Foy looked through news reports in English and Spanish, videos on social media, court reports, and she talked to people involved and other journalists. The scale of the issue shows that the abuses by federal agents are nationwide, not linked to a handful of protests. Her investigation also counters the idea put forward by Justice Brett Kavanaugh that if you’re a citizen, interaction with immigration agents is easy and straightforward.
They also discuss how these ICE raids are causing people to feel terrorized in their own neighborhoods. The lack of transparency and accountability are hallmarks of a secret police force, say other ProPublica reporters. The Trump administration has not been forthcoming when approached for information, which makes citizens filming altercations with federal immigration agents even more important for journalists, says Foy.

Nicole Foy is ProPublica’s Ancil Payne Fellow, reporting on immigration and labor. Before joining ProPublica, she was an enterprise and investigative reporter across the West, focusing on immigrants, Latino communities, farmworkers and inequality. She previously worked for CalMatters, the Austin American-Statesman, the Idaho Statesman, the Idaho Press and the Orange County Register.
Featured image of an ICE agent via Picryl.
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