As ICE expands, an AP review of crimes committed by agents shows how their powers can be abused

An immigration officer got away with physically assaulting his girlfriend for years, investigators say. Another admitted to repeatedly sexually assaulting a woman in custody. The third is accused of taking bribes to lift detention orders for people wanted to be deported.

At least two dozen U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees and contractors have been accused of crimes since 2020, and their documented crimes include physical and sexual abuse, corruption and other abuses of power. A review by the Associated Press found.

Most of the cases occurred before Congress voted last year to give ICE $75 billion. hire more representatives Experts say such crimes may accelerate due to the number of new employees and more people being detained. be empowered to use aggressive tactics arresting and deporting people.

The Trump administration has encouraged agents by asserting they have “absolute immunity” for their actions while on duty and weakening oversight. A judge recently suggested While they say ICE has fostered a disturbing culture of lawlessness, experts have questioned whether job applicants receive adequate screening and training.

“Once a person is recruited, hired, trained, and they’re not the right fit, it’s hard to get rid of them, and then there’s going to be a price to pay for everyone,” said Gil Kerlikowske, who served as commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection from 2014 to 2017.

Almost every law enforcement agency deals with bad employees, and domestic violence and substance abuse-related crimes are long-standing problems in this area. But ICE’s rapid growth and mission to deport millions is unprecedented, and the AP review found that the immense power officers wield over vulnerable populations can lead to abuses.

Department of Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said abuses were not widespread at the agency and that ICE “takes allegations of misconduct by its employees extremely seriously.” Many of the new hires already worked for other law enforcement agencies and their backgrounds were thoroughly reviewed, he said.

“America can be proud of the professionalism our officers bring to their jobs every day,” he said.

ICE abuse could become ‘a nationwide phenomenon’

ICE announced last month that it had more than doubled in size to 22,000 employees in less than a year.

Kerlikowske said ICE agents are “particularly vulnerable to unnecessary use of force issues” because they often conduct enforcement operations in public when facing protests. As the number of ICE detainees has nearly doubled since last year to 70,000, employees and contractors responsible for supervising them also face challenging conditions that can create more opportunities for abuse.

The Border Patrol doubled in size from 2004 to 2011 to more than 20,000 agents; that was six years longer than ICE received. There was embarrassment over the waves of corruption, fraud and other misconduct by some of the new hires. Kerlikowske recalled incidents of agents taking bribes or engaging in human trafficking to allow cars carrying drugs into the United States.

He and others say ICE is poised to see similar problems that will be more far-reaching, with less oversight and accountability.

“Corruption, abuse, and abuse were largely confined to along the border and to interactions with immigrants and border state residents. With ICE, this is going to become a nationwide phenomenon because they’re drawing so many people into this mission,” said David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.

Bier, who helped publicize recent arrests and other alleged abuses by ICE agents, said he was struck by “the extraordinary array of different crimes and charges that we’re seeing.”

The AP’s review examined public records containing the cases of ICE employees and contractors arrested since 2020, with at least 17 convicted and six awaiting trial. Last year, nine people were charged, including an agent who attacked a protester near Chicago while off duty.

Some of the most serious crimes were committed by experienced ICE employees and supervisors rather than rookies.

As federal officials justify ICE’s aggression, the agents’ behavior is being scrutinized by cellphone-wielding monitors and prosecutors in Democratic-led jurisdictions. Local agencies are investigating a fatal shooting of protesters in Minneapolis last month Renee Good And Alex is beautiful by federal agents and the killing of Keith Porter by an off-duty ICE agent in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve.

Arrests made local headlines

Cases across the country have generated unwelcome headlines for ICE, which has spent millions of dollars touting the criminal records of people it arrests as the “worst of the worst.”

Between them:

__ Samuel Saxon, the deputy chief of the ICE field office in Cincinnati, a 20-year ICE veteran, has been jailed since his December arrest on charges of attempting to strangle his girlfriend.

The judge stated that Saxon had abused the woman for years, breaking her hip and nose and causing internal bleeding. The judge made the decision to detain the woman until the hearing. “The defendant is an unstable and violent individual,” the judge wrote of Saxon, whose attorneys did not respond to a message seeking comment. ICE said he was considered absent without leave.

__ “I’m ICE, guys,” an ICE employment eligibility examiner told police when he was arrested in Minnesota in November for an assault on his way to meet what he thought was a 17-year-old prostitute. Alexander Back, 41, pleaded not guilty to attempted seduction of a minor. ICE said Back is on administrative leave while the agency investigates.

— When officers in a Chicago suburb found a man passed out in a crashed car in October, they were surprised to discover that the driver was an ICE officer who had recently completed a shift at a detention center and had a government firearm in the vehicle. They arrested Guillermo Diaz-Torres for drunk driving. He pleaded not guilty and was placed on administrative duty pending the investigation.

__ An ICE officer in Florida tried to dodge charges by pointing to law enforcement and his military service after he was pulled over for drunken driving in August with his two children in the car. When that failed, he demanded to know if one of the deputies who arrested him was Haitian and threatened to check the man’s immigration status in the body camera videos.

During the arrest, Scott Deiseroth warned, “When he gets out of here, I’m going to prosecute him, and if he’s not legitimate, he’s going back to Haiti.”

Deiseroth, who was sentenced to probation and community service, is on administrative leave pending the outcome of the internal investigation. “He did a stupid thing. He took it upon himself,” said his attorney, Michael Catalano. “He is very sorry about the incident.”

Many cases involve force and abuse

The AP’s review found a pattern of accusations involving ICE employees and contractors who mistreated vulnerable people in their care.

A former top official who worked at an ICE contract facility in Texas was sentenced to probation on Feb. 4 after admitting to grabbing a handcuffed detainee by the neck and slamming him against a wall last year. Prosecutors reduced the charge from a felony to a misdemeanor.

In December, an ICE contractor pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a detainee at a detention facility in Louisiana. Prosecutors said the man had sexual intercourse with a Nicaraguan citizen over a five-month period in 2025 while instructing other detainees to stand watch.

Outside Chicago, an off-duty ICE agent was charged with misdemeanor battery for throwing to the ground a 68-year-old protester who was filming him at a gas station in December. McLaughlin said the agent acted in self-defense.

Other accusations include corruption

Another pattern that emerged in the AP’s investigation involved ICE officials accused of abusing their power for financial gain.

An ICE deportation officer in Houston was indicted last summer on charges that he repeatedly accepted cash bribes from bail bondsmen in exchange for eliminating detention officers ICE placed on clients who targeted them for deportation.

ICE said the officer was “indefinitely suspended” in May 2024, then arrested a year later. He pleaded not guilty to seven counts of accepting bribes and was released from custody while awaiting trial.

A former supervisor at ICE’s New York City office gave confidential information about people’s immigration status to acquaintances and made arrests in exchange for gifts and other profits, prosecutors said. He was arrested in November 2024, pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

Two Utah-based ICE investigators were sentenced to prison last year for a scheme in which they made hundreds of thousands of dollars by stealing synthetic drugs known as “bath salts” from government custody and selling them through government informants.

ICE officers used badges to avoid consequences

Misconduct often involved using ICE resources and credentials to avoid arrest or receive favorable treatment.

In 2022, ICE supervisor Koby Williams was arrested in a police sting operation in Othello, Washington, as he drove to a hotel room to meet what he thought was a 13-year-old girl he had paid for sex.

Williams had driven the government vehicle, which was filled with cash, alcohol, pills and Viagra, and was carrying his ICE badge and loaded state firearm. The 22-year ICE veteran offered a justification that turned out to be a lie: He was there to “rescue” the girl as part of a human trafficking investigation. Williams is serving a prison sentence for what prosecutors called a “reprehensible” abuse of power.

“In his duty to protect and serve,” they wrote, “the defendant sought to exploit and victimize.”