In the heart of America’s ongoing immigration debate, the past year has seen a dramatic escalation in both the scope and the style of enforcement under President Donald Trump’s renewed tenure. As 2025 draws to a close, the impacts of these policies are reverberating across the nation, from the corridors of power in Washington to the bustling streets of Kansas City, and even into the political discourse of countries as far away as Chile.
According to Project Syndicate, Trump’s administration has doubled down on its aggressive anti-immigrant stance. By the end of October 2025, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported 527,000 removals of undocumented immigrants from the United States. While this number is staggering, it falls short of Trump’s high-profile campaign pledge to deport one million people in his first year—a target that would require roughly 3,000 deportations per day. Instead, the daily average has hovered just above 1,000, or about 7,500 per week. Even that figure is met with skepticism from immigration experts, with institutions like the American Immigration Council and the Migration Policy Institute questioning the accuracy of official numbers.
Despite the administration’s publicized crackdown, the reality is more complicated. The Trump White House has not only ramped up enforcement but also closed legal pathways for would-be immigrants, including halting all applications from 19 countries. Yet, paradoxically, the U.S. has also issued a record number of H-2A agricultural visas—about 315,000 in 2024, with projections nearing 400,000 in 2025—to address labor shortages caused, in part, by its own deportation efforts. As Project Syndicate notes, “immigrants remain vital to the US economy,” a fact that seems at odds with the administration’s rhetoric.
The challenges of mass deportation are not lost on observers abroad. In Chile, for example, the far-right presidential candidate José Antonio Kast has promised to expel all unauthorized foreigners if elected. His opponent, Jeannette Jara, has called the plan both inhumane and logistically impossible. Chile’s 1.6 million migrants—nearly 10% of its population—include a large percentage of undocumented people, many from countries with which Chile has strained or nonexistent diplomatic relations. The U.S. experience, with its far larger population and resources, demonstrates the near-impossibility of such sweeping deportations. As Project Syndicate points out, “If the US has barely managed to deport 500,000 undocumented immigrants in a year, despite having a population more than 17 times as large as Chile’s and infinitely more resources at its disposal, there is no way Kast could deliver on his promise.”
Back in the United States, the human face of these policies is seen in the day-to-day work of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). USA TODAY journalists embedded with ICE officers in Kansas City this November, providing a rare window into the agency’s operations under Trump’s orders for what he has called the largest mass deportation in history. ICE officers, many of whom once worked quietly in the background, now find themselves at the center of a national storm. The tension is palpable: a printed screenshot tacked to a cubicle wall at a Kansas City ICE office reads, “Get a gun and shoot them in the streets. This is a war.” Below, an agent has scrawled, “BE VIGILANT!!”
Keone Feliciano, an 11-year ICE veteran and Supervisory Detention and Deportation Officer, described the risks and the shifting public perception of his work. “We’re not the feelings police. We’re the law police,” Feliciano told USA TODAY. “And we’re just enforcing the laws as they’re written.” Feliciano recounted a recent operation in which his team arrested a previously deported Venezuelan man convicted of sex crimes who had re-entered the country illegally. After detecting tampering with the man’s GPS tracker, ICE officers staked out his home and detained him during a traffic stop—an approach they say is safer than entering homes.
The expansion of ICE is another hallmark of the Trump era. The “One Big Beautiful Bill,” passed by Congress in the summer of 2025, has enabled the agency to hire 18,500 new agents and support staff, effectively doubling its workforce. These new agents, often coming from Customs and Border Protection, have been instructed to pursue undocumented immigrants regardless of criminal history. According to Syracuse University’s Ausin Kocher, more than 40% of current detainees are held solely for immigration violations, with no criminal charges or convictions—a 25-fold increase since Trump took office.
This aggressive approach has sparked significant backlash. ICE officers report facing growing hostility, including attacks on their facilities and vehicles. In Kansas City, peaceful protests have sometimes escalated into violence. During the controversial Operation Midway Blitz, protesters rammed Feliciano’s vehicle in Chicago, and Border Patrol agents deployed tear gas against angry crowds. Community activists and local officials argue that these tactics are tearing communities apart, eroding trust in law enforcement, and even hurting local economies as immigrants withdraw from public life.
Melanie Arroyo, a Lenexa City Council member, described the climate of fear and mistrust: “We are feeling scared and worried but in a strange way we feel more empowered to speak up for our community. We feel this commitment to defend our people.” Kansas State Representative Susan Ruiz echoed these concerns, warning, “It has come to the point where no one is trusting each other. People are not out in the community like they normally would be. That means they’re not shopping. They’re not going to school. It’s affecting our entire way of life because you don’t know who to trust. Can you trust your neighbor?”
ICE officials, for their part, insist they are simply following orders. Feliciano and his team say they are using appropriate levels of force and targeting criminal offenders, but acknowledge that the environment is more dangerous and volatile than ever. “The detention space hasn’t changed much but we’re able to get people through the system faster,” Feliciano told USA TODAY. “We’re getting people out of the country very, very quickly.”
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is seeking to export its hardline stance. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has instructed U.S. diplomats to pressure foreign governments into restricting immigration and to report back on any signs of leniency. The administration’s new National Security Strategy even blames European migration policies for “transforming the continent and creating strife.”
Yet, as the track record of the past year shows, the promise of mass deportation remains largely unfulfilled. The economic costs are mounting, legal challenges persist, and the social fabric in many communities is fraying. While the politics of denouncing immigrants may rally some voters, the practicalities of removing millions of people are proving both costly and, in many ways, futile.
The story of America’s immigration enforcement in 2025 is one of bold promises, harsh realities, and communities caught in the crossfire—a reminder that the human and economic stakes of immigration policy are far higher than the headlines alone can capture.
