Trump Administration’s Mass Deportation Operations: Update November 2025

The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security believes that the escalation of hyper-militarized mass deportation operations targeting Black and Brown communities coupled with ongoing threats of national guard deployment from the Trump Administration is evidence of the normalization of the use of military force against civilians and a red flag for the genocidal process underway in the U.S. (See our previous Red Flag Alerts and statements for the U.S.). Cities across the U.S. continue to face armed mass deportation operations as the Trump Administration deploys Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers along with agents from other federal agencies to carry out enforcement operations under the guise of protecting public safety (See October brief). These enforcement operations have resulted in human rights violations committed by federal agents against noncitizens and citizens alike, including unlawful arrest, excessive use of force, arbitrary detention, and denial of due process. In an effort to better document the tactics and abuses of federal agents during these state-sanctioned operations, the Lemkin Institute is providing an analysis of key insights and incidents during the month of November 2025.

Mass Deportation Operations

In November the Lemkin Institute identified notable mass deportation operations in Texas, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Minnesota, and North Carolina. North Carolina in particular was a center for the Administration’s crackdown against immigrants.

North Carolina

Over the weekend of November 15th, federal agents arrived in Charlotte to carry out mass deportation operations as part of “Operation Charlotte’s Web.” According to news outlets, federal agents detained over 130 people in the first 48hrs, with 81 detained in the first 5hrs.

Eyewitnesses filmed agents pulling people from their cars and targeting people in stores and parking lots. Officers were also reported outside of churches and apartment complexes. Federal agents also attempted to raid the after-school program, OurBridge, causing the program to suspend services until further notice to protect their staff and children. Several businesses along Charlotte’s Central Avenue closed due to ICE operations out of safety concerns for their staff and customers. By November 18th, federal agents had arrested 250 people, including U.S. citizens.

Other cities reported operations in their area. Durham city officials reported 20 immigration raids in a 24hr period during which federal agents detained four people. In Raleigh, local sheriffs confirmed that nine people had been arrested in an immigration raid. Immigrant rights advocacy group, Siembra NC, also documented operations in Cary, Raleigh, and Durham.

Incidents in Other States

• San Antonio, TX: More than 140 immigrants arrested in raid in mid-November.

• Newark, NJ: More than 30 armed agents raided a Seafood Depot for the second time this year resulting in the arrest of 13 people.

• Allston, MA: On Nov. 4th, outside Boston, MA, a high profile ICE raid took place at a popular community carwash. 22 ICE agents arrived and detained nine people. This raid attracted national attention when Zac Segal, the president of the College Republicans at Boston University, stated on social media that he had called in the ICE Raid on the Allston carwash. Writing on X, he said “[t]his week they finally responded to my request to detain these criminals. As someone who lives in the neighborhood, I’ve seen how American jobs are being given away to those with no right to be here. Pump up the numbers!”

• Kaua’i, Hawaii: On November 5th, federal agents raided a 14 bedroom home in Kaua’i, Hawaii. According to reports, 44 people were detained, all from Venezuela.

• Northfield, MN: ICE agents were caught on video detaining a teenager's father by smashing his car window and throwing his father to the ground while the family waited for an attorney.

• Florida: During a statewide operation, ICE arrested 230 people over a ten day period. 

Changes in Tracking and Tactics

Federal agents continue to operate using masks and unmarked vehicles without clear warrants, often refusing to identify themselves, using racial profiling tactics, and denying people the opportunity to present their documentation. In November, federal agents announced new measures to track and target migrant children in addition to a new application to aid in their enforcement operations and plans to expand U.S. detention centers.

• ICE plans to open a call center in Nashville to track unaccompanied migrant children. This call center is designed to support and serve ICE’s 287(g) program which allows ICE to deputize and collaborate with local and state law enforcement partners in the field when carrying out enforcement operations. The center’s full time staff would receive electronic and telephone requests from 287(g) partners in the field, “analyze data, perform database cross-checks, and confirm enforcement actions in the field.”

• ICE has increased its interaction with children and minors. Several videos of these interactions have gone viral, including one video showing ICE using pepper spray against a one year old.. Multiple outlets reported a sharp decline in student performance and school attendance in heavily targeted ICE areas. According to ProPublica, federal agents placed 600 children in detention in the past year. This prompts serious safety concerns as the American Immigration Council reported that ICE detention was more deadly than the COVID pandemic for detainees. 

• The Trump administration is planning on retrofitting old warehouses and converting them into detention centers to increase capacity for detainees. Per reports, they will be built near airports.

• Mobile Identity is a new app used by federal agents during enforcement operations to scan people’s faces by pointing their phone at them. The app will then let the agent know whether or not to detain the person who's been scanned.

National Guard Shooting in Washington DC

The Trump Administration escalated its targeting of noncitizens seeking legal status in the wake of the shooting of two national guard soldiers on November 26th by an Afghan national with ties to the CIA, which resulted in the death of U.S. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom. On November 27th, President Trump posted a Thanksgiving message rife with genocidal language and imagery on Truth Social and X in which he vowed to pause immigration from “Third World” countries (See the Lemkin Institute’s full statement). Within hours, the Trump Administration paused all asylum decisions.

Trump’s Third-Country Network

In November the Trump Administration continued to expand its third-country network with countries like Ecuador and Equatorial Guinea. The Lemkin Institute has previously issued a Red Flag Alert for the Trump Administration’s deportation of noncitizens to third countries not of their nationality and without due process. In these coutries they are at risk of – and many have suffered from – being subjected to severe human rights abuses, including arbitrary detention, inhumane conditions, and torture. The Trump Administration, fully aware of the conditions deportees will face, continues to seek agreements with third-countries that will facilitate the further imprisonment of deportees or where instability, distance from the U.S., and deplorable human rights records (particularly regarding their treatment of migrants) provide another avenue of containment.

• The Trump Administration paid $7.5 million to the government of Equatorial Guinea for the country to agree to accept deportees. According to reports, this money came from the Migration and Refugee Assistance emergency fund apportioned by Congress to address international refugee crises, including facilitating refugee settlement in the U.S. The government of Equatorial Guinea has a history of corruption, with government officials embezzling money and participating in human trafficking. This raises concern for any future deportees sent to the country.

• A group of nineteen West African nationals were deported from the U.S. to Ghana. Government representatives claim that the deportees were being kept in a hotel for their safety; however, the legal counsel of one of the deportees claims that they have since been moved to an unknown location and cut off from legal counsel.

• Ecuador agreed to receive third-country migrants as they await final decisions on their asylum cases. In previous discussions of a deal between Ecuador and the U.S., there was the stipulation that Ecuador would receive up to 300 asylum seekers a year.

Analysis

In November, communities like Charlotte became the epicenter of state-sanctioned human rights violations. There continues to be a lack of consistent and visible identification of federal agents carrying out operations and a lack of clarity in who is being detained, for what reason, and where. The Institute remains concerned that federal agents are being utilized as a secret police to carry out state-sanctioned enforced disappearances of those deemed undesirable by the Trump Administration. This concern is compounded by the use of apps like Mobile Identity which could allow agents to better identify people and carry out arrests through facial recognition. The potential for inaccuracy in these apps also raises alarm as federal agents are increasingly relying upon an app's results to determine who to arrest, potentially leading to further human rights violations.

In addition to endangering communities more broadly, hyper-militarized deportation operations have specifically impacted the health, safety, and education of children as many stay home from school, get swept up in violent ICE raids, and remain in ICE detention. Now, ICE is preparing to increase efforts to target migrant children with its call center which will put this already vulnerable population at further risk.

The Trump Administration’s retaliation against noncitizens in the wake of the shooting of national guard soldiers threatens asylum seekers already in the U.S. who are now at risk of losing legal status and more vulnerable to targeting by mass deportation operations. As the Trump Administration expands its third-country network, those unlawfully arrested by federal agents potentially face further human rights abuses in countries like Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, and Ecuador, who agree to receive deportees.

The impunity of the federal government and federal agents must end. The Trump Administration cannot be allowed to continue its collective punishment of noncitizens based on their nationality. The extent of the harm that mass deportation operations have caused to children and other vulnerable populations must be investigated and those responsible held accountable. We also urge third countries who receive U.S. deportees to adhere to international human rights and refugee law standards and to not perpetuate further human rights abuses.

As long as we’re able, the Lemkin Institute will continue to monitor the genocidal process unfolding in the U.S. The Institute wants to stress that while we do our best to document incidents of state-sanctioned human rights violations committed by federal agents, we are only able to access information that is publicly available. The select incidents we are able to highlight are not exhaustive and the extent of these mass deportation operations and human rights violations is most likely underreported by open sources. Documentation of these incidents is key. We encourage those who are able to safely do so to document and report incidents to local grassroots community defense organizations monitoring ICE activity in your area.

Resources

• Ice in My Area Tracker: Report and track ICE activity in your area 

• Immigration Policy Tracking Project: Stay up to date on rapidly changing immigration policies  

• National Immigration Legal Services Directory: Search for immigration services near you

• National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights: Offers information to connect people to legal and community resources and currently lists national, state, and local immigration hotlines

• Immigrant Legal Resource Center : Provides information and currently lists California Rapid Response Networks to report ICE activity

• National Immigration Law Center: Provides information and resources on immigration policy

• American Civil Liberties Union: Stay up to date on changing immigration policies and ongoing litigation

• Immigrant Defense Project: Offers information on community defense and ICE tactics as well as a hotline to connect people with further resources and provide legal advice

• American Immigration Council: Provides breakdowns of immigration law and changing policy

• National Immigrant Justice Center: Provides legal resources and general information on current issues

• Third Country Deportation Watch: Provides information on third country deportations and countries who have entered into agreements with the U.S.

• ICE Flight Monitor: Human Rights First tracks and documents U.S. deportation flights