As ICE expands, an AP review of crimes committed by agents shows how their power can be abused.

Investigators say an immigration enforcement officer has been on the run after physically assaulting his girlfriend for years. Another admitted to repeatedly sexually assaulting a woman in his custody. A third are accused of taking bribes to lift orders to detain people targeted for deportation.

At least two dozen U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees and contractors have been charged with crimes since 2020, and their documented wrongdoing includes patterns of physical and sexual abuse, corruption and other abuses of authority, a review by The Associated Press found.

Most of the incidents happened before Congress voted last year to give ICE $75 billion to hire more agents and arrest more people, experts say, adding that these types of crimes could accelerate due to the sheer volume of new employees and their empowerment to use aggressive tactics to arrest and deport people.

The Trump administration has emboldened the agents by arguing they have “absolute immunity” for their duties and poor oversight actions. A judge recently suggested that ICE is developing a troubling culture of lawlessness, while experts have questioned whether job applicants are getting enough vetting and training.

“Once a person is hired, brought in, trained and they’re not the right person, it’s hard to get rid of them and there’s going to be a price for everybody down the road,” said Gil Kerlikowski, who served as U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner from 2014 to 2017.

Almost every law enforcement agency contends with poor staffing, and crimes related to domestic violence and substance abuse have long been problems in the area. But ICE’s rapid growth and goal of deporting millions is unprecedented, and the AP review found that the overwhelming power officers wield over vulnerable populations can lead to abuse.

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said wrongdoing was not widespread at the agency, and that ICE “takes allegations of misconduct by employees very seriously.” She said most of the new hires had already worked for other law enforcement agencies, and their backgrounds were thoroughly checked.

“America can be proud of the professionalism that our officers bring to work day in and day out,” she said.

ICE Abuse May Become a ‘Nationwide Incident’

ICE announced last month that it had more than doubled in size to 22,000 employees in less than a year.

Kerlikowske said ICE agents are particularly “vulnerable to unnecessary use of force issues,” because they conduct enforcement operations in public when faced with protests. As the number of ICE detainers nearly doubled to 70,000 last year, the staff and contractors responsible for overseeing them are also facing challenging conditions that could provide more opportunities for abuse.

From 2004 to 2011, the Border Patrol doubled in size to 20,000 agents—six years longer than ICE took over. It was embarrassed by a spate of corruption, malfeasance and other abuses by some new employees. Kerlikowske recalled cases of agents involved in human trafficking or taking bribes to allow cars loaded with drugs to enter the United States.

He and others said ICE is prepared to see similar problems that will likely be broader in scope, with less oversight and accountability.

“The corruption and the abuse and the misconduct was largely confined to the border and the interactions with immigrants and residents of border states. With ICE, it’s going to be a nationwide phenomenon because they’ve drawn a lot of people who are attracted to this mission,” said David Beer, director of immigration studies at the Lieber Institute, a Cato think tank.

Beers, who has helped publicize some of the recent arrests and other alleged misconduct by ICE agents, said he was “struck by the remarkable array of different crimes and charges that we’ve seen.”

The AP’s review examined public records covering the cases of ICE employees and contractors arrested since 2020, including at least 17 who have been convicted and six others who are awaiting trial. Nine people, including an agent cited last month, have been indicted for an off-duty attack on a protester near Chicago last year.

Some of the most serious crimes were committed by veteran ICE employees and supervisors, rather than fraudsters.

Even as federal officials justify ICE’s aggression, the agents’ behavior is drawing scrutiny from cellphone-wielding observers and Democratic-led prosecutors. Local agencies are looking into the fatal shootings by federal agents of protesters Renee Goode and Alex Pretty in Minneapolis last month, as well as the killing of Keith Porter by an off-duty ICE agent in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve.

The arrest made local headlines

Across the country, the cases have drawn unwanted headlines for ICE, which has spent millions of dollars to publicize the criminal rap sheets of “the worst” arrestees.

Among them:

__ 20-year ICE veteran Samuel Saxon, an assistant ICE field office supervisor in Cincinnati, has been jailed since his arrest in December for allegedly strangling his girlfriend.

Saxon abused the woman for years, breaking her hip and nose and causing internal bleeding, a judge found in an order granting her custody. “The defendant is a volatile and violent individual,” the judge wrote of Saxon, whose attorneys did not return messages seeking comment. ICE said he was considered absent without leave.

__ “I’m ICE, guys,” an ICE employment eligibility auditor told police in Minnesota in November when he visited a 17-year-old prostitute. Alexander Back, 41, has pleaded not guilty to attempted enticement of a minor. ICE said Back is on administrative leave while the agency investigates.

—When officers in suburban Chicago found a man passed out in a wrecked car in October, they were shocked to learn that the driver was an ICE officer who had just finished his shift at a detention center and had a government-issued gun in his vehicle. They arrested Guillermo Diaz-Torres for driving under the influence. He has pleaded not guilty and has been placed on administrative duty pending an investigation.

__ After an ICE officer in Florida was stopped in August for being drunk in a car with her two children, she tried to talk her way out of the charges by pointing to her law enforcement and military service. When that failed, he demanded to know if one of the deputies who arrested him was Haitian and threatened to check the man’s immigration status, body camera video shows.

“I’m going to run him down when he gets out of here and if he’s not legit, oh, he’s going back to Haiti,” Scott Deisseroth warned during the arrest.

Deisseroth, who was sentenced to probation and community service, is on administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation. “He did something stupid. He owned up,” said his attorney, Michael Catalano. “He’s very sorry about the whole thing.”

Many cases involve force and abuse

An AP review found a pattern of charges involving ICE employees and contractors who abused vulnerable people in their care.

A former top official at an ICE contract facility in Texas was sentenced Feb. 4 to probation after he grabbed a handcuffed detainee by the neck and slammed him against a wall last year. Prosecutors downgraded the charge from a felony to a misdemeanor.

In December, an ICE contractor pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a detainee at a Louisiana detention facility. Prosecutors said the man had sexual encounters with the Nicaraguan national over a five-month period in 2025 as he instructed other detainees to act as lookouts.

Outside of Chicago, an off-duty ICE agent has been charged with misdemeanor battery for allegedly throwing a 68-year-old protester to the ground while filming at a gas station in December. McLaughlin said the agent acted in self-defense.

Other allegations were cited of corruption

Another pattern that emerged in the AP’s review is that ICE officials are accused of abusing their power for financial gain.

An ICE deportation officer in Houston was indicted last summer on charges that he repeatedly accepted cash bribes from bail bondsmen to remove detainees ICE targeted for deportation.

ICE said the officer was “indefinitely suspended” in May 2024, before his arrest a year later. He has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of bribery and has been released from custody pending trial.

Prosecutors say a former supervisor at ICE’s New York City office provided confidential information to acquaintances about the immigration status of people arrested and detained in exchange for gifts and other benefits. He was arrested in November 2024, has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

Utah-based ICE investigators were sentenced to prison last year for a scheme in which they made hundreds of thousands of dollars by stealing synthetic drugs known as “bath salts” from government custody and selling them through government informants.

ICE officers used badges to avoid consequences

Mistakes often involve the use of ICE resources and evidence to avoid arrest or obtain favorable treatment.

In 2022, ICE Supervisor Coby Williams was arrested in a sting by police in Othello, Washington, when he went to a hotel room to meet what he believed to be a 13-year-old girl he had arranged to pay for sex.

Williams drove his government vehicle, which was loaded with cash, alcohol, pills and Viagra, and carried his ICE badge and a loaded government gun. The 22-year ICE veteran offered an argument that turned out to be false: that he was there to “rescue” the girl as part of a human trafficking investigation. Williams is facing prison terms for a “reprehensible” abuse of power by prosecutors.

“With a duty to protect and serve,” they wrote, “the defendant sought to exploit and victimize.”