During the campaign season of the November 2024 election, Preside Donald Trump ran on the promise of mass deportations. When Donald Trump was elected to office, he instantly shifted focus to ICE. Senior leaders at ICE offices are now held only by current or retired Border Patrol Officers.
Revisions to the ICE department included the ability to enter schools and hospitals without a warrant, increasing raids, buying warehouses as holding detentions and shifting focus from criminal records to illegal immigrants as targets.
On the surface level, to some, ICE raids may seem effective in preventing criminals and overcrowding, but that isn’t the case deep down. In reality, local families are being affected and left in stressful situations and environments.
“I remember being at church when my Godmother got a call saying her husband’s coworkers had been taken,” senior Sujeidy Ortiz said. “The look on her face said everything: fear, disbelief, heartbreak. It’s such a painful thought, knowing that a father won’t come home to his daughter, and a mother is now the sole provider of the home. The fear never really leaves you.”
When someone is taken, it shakes a community, regardless of who it is. The revisions made to ICE policies, like increasing raids and the ability to enter schools and hospitals, make the situation even more tense for communities. No person knows when they might encounter an ICE officer.
“ICE has really affected my family by deciding what we do and where we go,” senior Luis Sauceda said. “My parents don’t like going out too far or too much in case we encounter an officer. My parents used to always want to go out and do things, but now they question everything when we go out.”
Communities are affected all the way down the line. Mexican flea markets are a huge success, especially in the state of Texas. When the threat of deportation arises, groups no longer want to meet in drawing events. Instead, they suffer the financial loss and hide in fear.
“All of a sudden, the famous Hispanic market in Conroe, ‘El Ahorro,’ was empty,” senior Ashley Briones said. “My dad and I would go there almost every week to buy an elote from the elote man in the parking lot, but then suddenly, not a single soul was in the parking lot. I didn’t really think that my small town of Conroe would be affected so much. I can’t even imagine the fear they’re going through.”
People who are against ICE are against them because of their actions. ICE raids aren’t known for being gentle or clear. For example, Kilmar Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March 2025. In 2011, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia immigrated to the United States at the age of 16 to escape gang violence in his home country of El Salvador.
In 2019, an immigration judge granted Garcia protection from deportation as Garcia faced gang threats in El Salvador. This protection and marriage to his American wife allowed him to live and work legally in the United States. He lives with his wife and their daughter. However, ICE still wrongfully deported him due to an “administrative error.” Now, ICE is fighting to deport Garcia to Liberia, despite him being legal in the United States.
“Coming from a household of two immigrant parents, it really pains me to see people’s families being torn apart,” senior Victoria Medina said. “My parents moved here in their early teenage years and worked hard to get jobs and make a home ready to provide for a family. Seeing people get taken away even when they have all the right documentation is unfair. I would always help my mom practice for the U.S. Citizenship exam, and it’s not easy seeing people who have never learned this information in school, try and learns hundreds of topics to pass the exam.”
