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Immigration raids led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) targeted scores of U.S. cities this week. Widespread ICE raids were carried out in Chicago on Sunday and New York City on Tuesday, in addition to smaller raids in Phoenix, Atlanta, San Diego, Miami, and other cities across the country. The raid in Chicago, which has continued throughout the week, was highly publicized: even celebrity TV host Dr. Phil rode along with immigration officials to contribute to the “shock and awe” spectacle of the massive round-ups. The scale of the ICE operations has been chilling for residents: in neighborhoods like majority-Mexican Pilsen, school attendance has dropped significantly and families are attending church services through Zoom as a result of a new federal policy that lifted a ban on immigration raids in “sensitive places” like schools, churches, and hospitals. 

Cautious activists and analysts have warned that, though the threat is real, so far, Trump’s immigration blitz is mostly a media frenzy to incite fear and drum up support for the administration's anti-immigrant agenda. In terms of overall numbers, the raids do not constitute a massive departure from his first administration. Nor have they always been effective. Local governments have in many cases been successful in refusing to cooperate with federal immigration officials, and local communities have held “know-your-rights” trainings to share information about how to avoid capture. Federal officials have complained directly about how these resistance initiatives have made their jobs much more difficult. ICE’s planned third raid in Aurora, Colorado was called off this week due to media leaks and the ongoing organizing of activists. 

Even still, ICE has conducted an unprecedented number of arrests for a new administration. The average number of detentions  per day last week hovered around 1,000, a huge spike from the previous average of around 300 daily arrests under Joe Biden. The agency has been championing its arrest numbers on social media in daily “enforcement updates.” It has also been publishing photos of the individuals being apprehended, listing their names, alleged crimes, and countries of origins in order to incite against alleged “violent criminals in their midst. ” fear so that people believe that those who are being arrested are “violent” criminals. “Every one of them is either a murderer, a drug lord, a kingpin of some kind, a head of the mob, or a gang member,” Trump said Monday of deportees. 

Even though being undocumented is a civil offense, not a crime, the Trump administration has stated explicitly that it sees all undocumented migrants as “criminals.” In its daily arrest totals, ICE has purposely lumped together those who were arrested for being undocumented and those who were charged with “violent” crimes. The link between deportation and the commission of any crime was made even murkier by the bipartisan passing of the Laken Riley Act, which requires the detention of undocumented immigrants who are merely accused of even low-level crimes like theft.

The Trump administration has also changed the means through which migrants are deported, as well as the places in which they can be temporarily detained. In a move that has sparked tensions with Latin American leaders who are wary of U.S. foreign intervention, the government has started to deport migrants on military planes, as it did in the case of deportees last week to Guatemala. On Wednesday, Trump also signed a memorandum instructing the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to prepare a migrant detention facility suitable for upwards of 30,000 people on the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The Naval Base, a key part of the United States’s military presence in the region and home to the high-security prison that housed many of those alleged to have committed the 9/11 attacks, is also home to a migrant detention facility that has been dogged by claims of inhumane conditions. 

 

CALL FOR PITCHES!

 
 
 

NACLA is currently accepting proposals for our Fall 2025 issue on Green Capitalism in the lead-up to COP30 in Belém, Brazil in November. Send us your pitches by February 3, 2025.

This issue of the NACLA Report is guest-edited by Sabrina Fernandes and Breno Bringel. Our goal is to help to equip activists and scholars in identifying false solutions in order to propose truly just transition approaches that fight the climate and ecological crises while improving socioeconomic justice and equity in the region.

 
 
 
 
 
 

THIS WEEK FROM NACLA

The Disappearance of a Mapuche Elder is an Indictment of Chile’s “Progressive” Government

Carole Concha Bell | January 31, 2025

Activists link the disappearance of land defender Julia Chuñil to the state’s militarization of the region and its deep ties to rapacious forestry companies.

Trump and the Threat of Domestic Militarization

Dawn Paley, Ojalá  | January 31, 2025

Mexico's experience with the militarization of prohibition and migration is defined by violence and displacement.

 
 

IMAGE OF THE WEEK

Photo of a protester attending a rally to denounce femicide in Colombia. Part of an upcoming NACLA article by Anna Abraham and Tony Kirby. (Tony Kirby)

 
 

AROUND THE REGION

  • BRAZIL DEPORTATION FLIGHT — The issue of deportations this week was focused on the treatment of deportees on flights. The issue was set-off with the revelations that Brazilian deportees on a commercial deportation flight had been handcuffed, subjected to sweltering heat, and so mistreated that they escaped onto the grounded plane’s wings to beg for help. Upon landing in Manaus, where the plane had stopped due to technical problems, Brazilian authorities immediately ordered US officials to remove the handcuffs. A Brazilian military plane then flew to Manaus to pick up and transport the passengers to their final destination in Belo Horizonte. In the aftermath, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry released a statement that said it was seeking answers from Washington regarding the “degrading treatment” and “flagrant disregard” for the rights of the deportees. The government also set up a humanitarian reception center for deportees from the United States to ensure that passengers are provided with essentials like water and food that they may not receive on their flights. 
  • PETRO-TRUMP SPAT FALLOUT— Hundreds of visa appointments at the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá were cancelled and passengers traveling from Colombia to the United States were subjected to additional security screenings this week as a result of a diplomatic spat between the U.S. and Colombian governments. The disagreement occurred after Colombian President Gustavo Petro, referencing the earlier Brazil incident, announced early Sunday morning that the country would not accept deportation flights run by the U.S. military because they could not guarantee the dignity of migrants who “cannot be treated as criminals.” In response, President Trump threatened to impose a 25 percent tariff on all Colombian imports, a travel ban on Colombian government officials, the suspension of U.S. visa processing, and banking and financial sanctions. Though Petro initially responded in kind, within a day the Colombian president conceded and the Trump administration was gloating that “America is respected again.” While deportation flights have resumed and Colombia’s opposition has criticized Petro for the blowup, he has continued to advocate for the dignity of migrants. He tasked the Colombian air force with traveling to the United States in order to transport its citizens targeted for deportation under better conditions, and boarded the plane upon its arrival to speak with deportees who were notably unhandcuffed.
 
 
  • REGIONAL DELIBERATIONS ON MIGRATION CANCELLED — A Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) meeting aimed at crafting a response to the U.S. threat of mass deportations that was slated to begin on Thursday has been cancelled. The meeting was cancelled due to the interventions of the governments of Argentina, Ecuador, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama, countries that want closer ties to the United States. One reason for the cancellation was Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s impending visit to Central America, as some conservative governments would prefer to receive Rubio without the tension that a regional meeting could incite. The idea for a regional summit to discuss Trump’s deportation policies and collaborate on attacking the root causes of migration was floated nearly a month ago. While the region’s governments have been focused on crafting reintegration plans and promising to receive their citizens with “open arms,” the cancellation of the meeting represented a setback for the goal of deeper regional collaboration.
  • RUBIO TO TOUR CENTRAL AMERICA — Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit Central America in the coming days to “counter China,” deal with migration, and address the thorny subject of the Panama Canal. Rubio, who is now the highest ranking Latino official in U.S. history, was unanimously confirmed for his position on January 20. Rubio is expected to visit Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic. Though he has tip-toed around Trump’s direct threat to take back the Panama Canal, Rubio has parrotted the argument that the terms under which the Canal was returned to the Panamanians may “have been violated” because the Chinese government exercises near-sovereignty through “companies we know are not independent.”  Though factually untrue, according to Rubio, this represents “a direct threat to the national interest and security of the United States.” Panamanian President Jose Raúl Mulino has ruled out discussing control of the Canal during Rubio’s visit. Notably absent from the tour was the country of Honduras, a country with a large population in the United States but which has recently threatened to expel U.S. troops if mass deportations move forward.
  • MILEI TO ELIMINATE FEMICIDE FROM PENAL CODE — Argentine President Javier Milei has moved to strike the crime of femicide from the country’s penal code. Femicide, the murder of a woman in the context of gender violence, was added to the country’s penal code in 2012 but has been singled out by the administration due to its supposed “‘distortion” of the concept of equality. Femicide was but one of the products of “woke ideology” that Javier Milei targeted in his speech at the World Economic Forum at Davos last week. In his speech, Milei attacked the “bloody and murderous abortion agenda,” linked “gender ideology” to “child abuse,” attacked “diversity” quotas that are “invented for minority politicians,” and lamented that wokeism has created societies of “forced collectivization” and “indoctrination centers disguised as universities.” Milei’s attacks on women’s rights have moved far beyond words. He eliminated the ministry of women, dissolved the undersecretariat for protection against gender violence, and advanced a bill seeking to recriminalize abortion. In November, Argentina was the only country in the world to vote against a UN resolution to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls. 
     
 
 
 
 

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