Criticism of ICE has intensified in the United States after a series of deaths linked to the agency’s actions and a large-scale operation in Minnesota launched in late December 2025 on orders from Donald Trump’s administration.
One case involved 44-year-old Kyiv native Maksym Chernyak, who came to the US under a humanitarian program for Ukrainians. After his arrest on January 26, 2025 on domestic violence charges that his partner Oksana Tarasiuk described as a family misunderstanding, he was transferred to ICE custody and placed in the Krome detention center in Florida. Lawyers and former detainees say people there are held in overcrowded cells, sleep on concrete floors and are rarely taken to the toilet.
On February 18, Chernyak suffered a stroke. Tarasiuk said staff delayed calling an ambulance, and just minutes after she was told the criminal charges had been dropped, she learned that he had died. According to the article, 32 people died in ICE facilities in 2025.
In Minneapolis, protests escalated after two deaths. On January 7, 2026, ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot 37-year-old poet and US citizen Rene Good. On January 24, 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretty was killed at a protest against the agency after, according to witnesses, officers pinned him to the ground, took away a firearm he was legally allowed to carry, and then several agents opened fire.
The day after Pretty’s death, US Attorney General Pam Bondi sent Minnesota officials a letter saying ICE units could be withdrawn from the state if several conditions were met, including handing over the state’s voter registration database. Critics called this a pressure tactic aimed at naturalized citizens.
“ICE will leave Minnesota if you give us the voter database,” Congresswoman Ilhan Omar wrote on X.
The Trump administration says the operation is meant to protect public safety and deport criminals who are in the country illegally. Lawyers and local officials, however, say the raids have targeted people without convictions, migrants with legal status and even US citizens. Solidarity protests and demands to curb ICE powers have since spread to other American cities.