In the Line of ICE: More Lives Upended by Trump’s Mass Deportation Policy

 

Editor’s Note: In his 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump’s supporters called on him to, if elected, enact a mass deportation campaign across the nation. He has delivered on his promise to do so, which has led to mass incarceration, violence, and death. This fall, GFM is featuring just a few of the stories of lives that these efforts have upended.

Brayan Garzón-Rayo

 

 

 

 

 

Brayan Garzón-Rayo immigrated to the U.S. in 2023 with his siblings and mom, Lucy, to escape escalating violence in Colombia. They made it through a California border crossing on their third attempt. According to Lucy, the family’s first interactions with ICE (which occurred under the Biden Administration) were marked by humiliation and racism. The family eventually settled in St. Louis, with all but Brayan given active asylum cases.

Two weeks after charges were filed against Brayan for credit card fraud, local law enforcement agents detained him outside his home. Later, immigration authorities issued a deportation order and, on March 25, 2024, took him into custody from the local jail.

During his intake process, Garzón-Rayo reported his medical history to officials, including a heart murmur. On March 29, he was sent to the emergency room, where he tested positive for COVID-19 and potential exposure to tuberculosis. Over the span of the next week, he was placed in isolation, and his request for mental health care was delayed.

On April 7, he passed a handwritten note to guards requesting to speak with his mom. Later that evening, he was found unresponsive. The next day, he was pronounced dead, with ICE determining suicide as the cause of death. In May 2026, the Associated Press reported that Garzón-Rayo’s story was part of an alarming pattern of ICE detainees dying by suicide.

Brayan Garzón-Rayo was 27 years old when he died. He loved riding motorcycles and watching soccer.

Renee Good

 

 

 

 

On December 1, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced “Operation Metro Surge” in Minneapolis-St. Paul Minnesota. The department said it would be “the largest DHS operation ever.”

Over the next few weeks, ICE agents took to the streets en masse, escalating their aggressive tactics far beyond what they had shown in previous months. The local Somali community was targeted following a year of racist and demonizing rhetoric by Donald Trump and his supporters.

Twin Cities residents responded by organizing demonstrations and ICE observations. On January 7, 2026, several observers were monitoring DHS near a dual-language elementary school when ICE officers got stuck in the snow.

One observer, Renee Good, was in her SUV and stopped on the road when ICE officer Jonathan Ross parked ahead of her, got out, and began filming. Eyewitnesses say agents gave Good conflicting orders, with one telling her to drive on and another telling her to get out of her car.

As Good was turning her vehicle around, Ross shot her in the head. She died on the scene. DHS officials initially claimed Good used her vehicle to injure the officer, but an investigation by The Guardian found the officer had no injuries.

Renee Good was 37 years old and a U.S. citizen. She was a writer, poet, partner, and mom. Her death brought heightened awareness to the ICE operations Donald Trump’s supporters asked for during the 2024 election.

Elvis Rodriguez Venturas

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elvis Rodriguez Venturas and his family immigrated from Honduras to the United States without documentation. They ended up in Texas, where Venturas found work in construction.

According to a CBS News report, Venturas avoided deportation back to Honduras due to active threats of violence if he returned. Yet earlier this year, DHS detained him.

In August, ICE agents placed Venturas and other detainees on a plane without telling them where it was going. The plane landed in Liberia, a country Venturas had never been to or even knew existed. There, he and other immigrants have remained in limbo, unaware of their status or what they can do.

Venturas told CBS that he speaks with his family regularly. His children, two of whom are U.S. citizens, ask him every day when he is returning home.