A damning Senate report accuses Donald Trump’s federal immigration agents of acting like a “paramilitary force” by unlawfully detaining U.S. citizens, injuring them, and lashing out at people who record their actions.
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations says the government’s conduct runs far beyond what Justice Brett Kavanaugh envisioned in his Supreme Court concurrence this fall, which presumed that citizens stopped by immigration officers would be “promptly” released.
Instead, the committee’s investigation found that masked agents in unmarked vehicles often “lawlessly detain” citizens for hours or days, ignore proof of citizenship, and then justify encounters with claims of “assault” that collapse under basic scrutiny.
The findings “add to a growing body of evidence that the Trump administration is seeking to build a nationwide paramilitary force with vast resources that lawlessly detains citizens based on its own whims—an effort which has a number of unfortunate and obvious historical parallels,“ the report said.
The committee says the 22 interviews it cataloged with Americans swept up in ICE and Border Patrol operations between June and November 2025 prove claims made repeatedly by the Department of Homeland Security that the Trump administration does not detain American citizens are false.
Testimonies include Andrea Velez, held for more than 48 hours in Los Angeles without water and falsely accused of attacking an agent; George Retes, an Army veteran locked up for over three days; and a diabetic father detained for 96 hours despite carrying ID and a passport.
According to the report, use of force has become routine. One Chicago woman, Marimar Martinez, was shot five times by agents. Rafie Ollah Shouhed, a 79-year-old Los Angeles business owner, suffered multiple broken ribs. And Julian Cardenas says an agent slammed his head into the ground, causing a concussion.
Last month, an Obama-appointed Chicago federal judge castigated Border Patrol teams led by commander Gregory Bovino—who was ruled to have lied repeatedly to the court—over their conduct and credibility during “Operation Midway Blitz” in the city and surrounding areas.
The DHS-run agency was found to have made numerous misleading claims over its use of force and chemical weapons, with judges rebuking the department’s lawyers over “impossible to believe” narratives, and issuing extraordinary oversight for Bovino’s teams.
Children, the Senate committee found, were “treated with reckless disregard.”
In Idaho, a 14-year-old girl was zip-tied, and her younger siblings were held at gunpoint during a raid. In Massachusetts, a 6-year-old autistic U.S. citizen was separated from her parents and later treated in an emergency room.
Similarly aggressive tactics were on display during Trump’s Chicago crackdown—including pepper spray and CS gas deployed around families and bystanders, and kids and seniors bound during raids.
The report also describes officials ignoring or rejecting proof of citizenship. One man in Alabama presented a state STAR ID—issued only to U.S. citizens—but was told it was “fake.”
Another from L.A. tried to hand over his passport, only for an agent to toss it back into his truck. A third man said he heard an officer say of him, “Just get him, he’s Mexican.”
Across the country, the investigation found, there have been repeated episodes in which masked teams in unmarked vehicles refused to identify themselves, a hallmark of the tactics the Senate committee says sows fear and confusion.
The committee’s findings also found regular retaliation against people who film immigration agents on duty.
Julian Cardenas said agents punched his car window when they saw him recording. Leonardo Garcia Venegas said he was thrown to the ground while filming a warrantless worksite raid. And Alberto Nila said a federal officer yanked him from his car after noticing his phone.
Their testimony comes as a fresh video highlighted by the Daily Beast on Wednesday shows a Border Patrol officer being filmed during an encounter, grabbing the person’s phone, and hurling it to the floor.
Time and again, charges used to justify detentions—especially “assault on a federal officer”—evaporated when video was reviewed, the report says. That number includes cases involving a heavily pregnant woman and the 79-year-old with a heart stent, the report says.
In Chicago and beyond, judges have found testimony from ICE and Border Patrol agents to be unbelievable. In one case highlighted by the Beast, a Texas judge threw out an “outrageous” and “fictional” attempt by the Trump administration to have a man jailed for 20 years.
The Senate report says the accounts appear to be part of a broader shift in which Trump, 79, has urged ICE to go “farther,” while loyalists dismiss concerns about citizens being swept up.
It concludes that citizens’ detentions—already the most legally indefensible—likely understate harms faced by non-citizens, who have fewer protections and less ability to speak publicly.
The Daily Beast has contacted DHS for comment.
The post Damning Report Finds Trump’s ‘Paramilitary’ Immigration Goons Regularly Mistreat Citizens appeared first on The Daily Beast.
