*On New Yr’s Eve 2025 in Los Angeles, Keith Porter Jr. was allegedly gunned down by Brian Palacios, a Hispanic ICE agent. Two weeks later, Alex Pretti was allegedly killed by two Hispanic Border Patrol brokers: Jesus Ochoa and Raymundo Gutierrez.
These three shootings—together with a fourth, the killing of Renee Good—are essentially the most controversial and highest-profile incidents. They’ve stirred the best public anger and mass protests towards ICE. The truth that the accused brokers in these three lethal shootings are Hispanic has raised many eyebrows, defying the seemingly regular sample in doubtful law-enforcement killings of protesters, Black people, or Hispanics, the place the shooters are nearly at all times—or are broadly assumed to be—white. These three killings challenged that standard assumption.
However did they actually? ICE brokers are a various group. In actual fact, the company’s variety tilts closely towards Hispanics. Whereas Hispanics represent near twenty % of the general federal workforce, they make up greater than thirty % of ICE brokers.
A substantial variety of these brokers are concerned within the much-disputed ICE sweeps and raids. The company has confronted widespread accusations of racial profiling and sexual and baby abuse of immigrant detainees. As evidenced by the brokers implicated within the Porter and Pretti killings, the overuse of lethal drive is one other grave concern.
Within the overwhelming majority of instances the place ICE brokers are accused of abuses, the alleged victims are different Hispanics, each documented and undocumented immigrants. At demonstrations, protesters and immigration reform activists have repeatedly taunted Hispanic brokers, calling them sellouts and traitors. A standard query posed is why they work for an company so broadly loathed inside their very own neighborhood.
The solutions range. For a lot of potential Hispanic ICE brokers, it’s a stable, well-paying job that gives glorious alternatives for private {and professional} development. For the extra idealistic, it’s a method to serve and shield their neighborhood. A prime Hispanic ICE official as soon as emphasised this level, noting that he assigned brokers strictly to frame patrol duties moderately than to conduct sweeps.
However that was earlier than Trump took cost. No matter an agent’s idealism or their view of themselves as neighborhood protectors, Trump sharply modified the principles of engagement. As one Hispanic ICE agent famous, insurance policies at the moment are dictated from the highest—particularly, by Homeland Safety officers.
The administration deployed a whole bunch of brokers to largely Democratic-controlled cities and predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods. This transfer was seen as granting an open license to make use of any measure, irrespective of how harsh or extra-legal, to crack down on immigrants. Throughout Trump’s first yr again in workplace, ICE brokers flooded Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C., Memphis, and Minneapolis. The gloves had been off.
The killings of Pretti, Porter, and Good had been essentially the most infuriating and outrageous outcomes. The 2 Hispanic brokers accused in Pretti’s demise are prime examples of the aggressive “get powerful” directive underneath Trump. Each had been assigned to Operation Metro Surge, an immigration enforcement dragnet launched in December 2025 that despatched scores of armed and masked brokers into focused cities. An undisclosed variety of these brokers had been nearly definitely Hispanic.
Their identities, particular assignments, and actions—each authorized and extra-legal—had been intentionally hid. ICE and Homeland Safety officers have made it clear that, regardless of calls for from native and state officers, congressional representatives (largely Democrats), and public curiosity teams, they won’t launch the names of brokers who use lethal drive or are accused of abuses.
It was ProPublica, a number one public curiosity group—not Homeland Safety—that discovered and launched the names of the ICE brokers accused in Pretti’s killing. Their investigation additionally revealed that one of many brokers was an avid gun collector who had been assigned to an ICE particular response group that handles SWAT-like duties. For brokers on such groups, de-escalation of potential confrontations just isn’t a precedence; violence is.
The deaths of Porter and Pretti are ugly testaments to that actuality. The official line from Homeland Safety, ICE, and Trump is that brokers like Palacios, Ochoa, and Gutierrez had been simply doing their jobs. Most of the different Hispanic brokers who comprise a good portion of ICE would probably say the identical. And there are numerous them.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an writer and political analyst. His newest e-book The ICE Taking pictures Scorecard (Amazon e-book and Center Passage Press PB) He hosts the weekly information and points commentary radio present The Hutchinson Report Wednesdays 6 PM PST 9 PM EST at ktymgospel.web. and Fb Livestreamed at https://www.fb.com/earl.o.hutchinson
(If You Like/Admire This EURweb Story, Please SHARE it!)
MORE NEWS ON EURWEB.COM: Santa Barbara ICE Confrontation Goes Viral—Then Will get Trumpified | WATCH-it-Occur
We Publish Breaking Information 24/7. Don’t Miss Out! Join our Free each day e-newsletter HERE.
