As America celebrates 250 years of freedom from tyranny and the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, individuals and communities across the nation continue to suffer unjust violence from an out-of-control ICE agency. While last year’s shock and awe tactics used in the Minneapolis invasion have been abandoned, ICE agents continue to operate in quieter but no less devastating ways.
We have again been horrified by the recent executions of two people, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Joan Sebastian Guerrero, immigrants from Mexico and Colombia. They were both fathers gunned down in their vehicles by ICE agents, and neither were even ICE targets. They and their families are victims in a systematic effort by the Trump administration to expel
brown-skinned immigrants from the United States. Since Trump's second term began, there have been 29 shootings by federal immigration officials, eight of them fatal. These two fathers are only the latest victims.
Though they don't garner the same headlines today as people shot and killed by ICE, the horrors against immigrants are not limited to gun violence. In March 2025, the administration abducted about 240 Venezuelan men and — against the order of a United States district judge — within hours flew them to an El Salvador prison built for terrorists. The libertarian CATO Institute and CBS News found that the vast majority of the men had no criminal record, and dozens were in the nation legally. These men were imprisoned in El Salvador for months, beaten and living in inhumane conditions.
ICE policy mandates that the agency document and report any deaths that occur within an ICE detention facility. Since Trump's second term in office began, 52 immigrants have died in ICE detention facilities. If this pace continues, there will be at least four times the number of deaths under Trump than the number under Biden’s term. On July 14, the president of Mexico announced that the nation would file criminal complaints against the United States for the deaths of 17 Mexican citizens.
These are not “tragedies,” as if they happened outside human control. These are atrocities committed as a result of dehumanizing policies instituted by the federal government while being bolstered at the local level.
In October 2024, Greene County Sheriff Jim Arnott signed an intergovernmental agreement between the Greene County Jail and ICE so that the jail could be used as an immigrant detention center. In the past year, the jail has had a daily average of about 240 immigrants detained, but data indicates that recently there have been as many as 377 detainees. Contrary to what the Trump administration would like people to believe, less than 3% of currently detained immigrants in the Greene County Jail have criminal charges listed on their arrest record.
The Immigrant Justice Collaborative has been part of tracking 3,976 immigrants from across the nation who have been temporarily imprisoned in Greene County Jail, awaiting deportation. While imprisoned, humanitarians have reported that visitation has been strictly limited only to pastors; detainees have been kept without access to information and sufficiently warm clothing; and hygiene has been a serious concern. Detention centers like the Greene County Jail receive an inspection by ICE every two years. During Greene County Jail’s last inspection, in May 2026, the agency itself noted a deficiency in sanitation.
President Trump's violent and frequently unlawful ICE campaign against immigrants has destroyed livelihoods, ruptured families, traumatized children and led to dozens of deaths. It is a weaponization of federal policy against our neighbors and communities, and ICE has disregarded constitutional rights in its haste to meet detention center quotas. The violence against immigrants and their imprisonment may feel distant from Greene County citizens’ daily lives, but the Greene County Jail is an active participant in it. It has aided efforts that have been destructive to hundreds of thousands of people simply trying to build a life and take care of their families. I can't imagine that the majority of Greene County citizens sit comfortably knowing this. Having seen 18 months of chaos and inhumanity sown by ICE, the Greene County Jail’s agreement with ICE should be terminated.
Travis Marler lives in Springfield.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: The Greene County Jail is complicit in ICE's violence | Opinion
