Andrew McCabe, attorney and former deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), insists President Trump’s second-term immigration crackdown, built on aggressive quotas and mass raids, is directly driving a surge in shootings by ICE and other federal immigration agents by putting officers under extreme pressure and encouraging confrontational tactics.
McCabe recently told CNN that Trump’s immigration enforcement strategy creates a mindset where agents are more likely to use force, turning policy and rhetoric into a direct cause of deadly encounters. He also insists that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has made a habit of initially stating shootings were committed in “self-defense” and then being forced to reverse their position through subsequent internal reviews, videos, and/or witness testimony.
Second, he also argues that political messaging casting targets as “criminals” and “terrorists,” and declarations that the shootings are justified, encourages the use of force.
And with Trump advisors reportedly moving quickly to characterize recent DHS shootings as justifiable prior to an investigation’s completion, McCabe argues the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can’t be relied upon when it comes to reporting facts regarding its own violent incidents, and therefore, the most likely explanation for the DHS pattern of shooting people dead is systemic policy choices based on political pressure. And while private citizens obviously shouldn’t get in the way of ICE, the latter are supposed to be trained to handle protests. ICE are professionals and should be the more responsible group. That’s the expectation.
MAGA’s false claims
Although McCabe didn’t focus on MAGA’s false claims, they are every bit as responsible for ICE’s recklessness. Prominent Trump allies and MAGA figures routinely inflate the number of “illegal immigrants,” tossing out figures in the 20–50 million range that are not supported by any serious data and far exceed nonpartisan estimates of the undocumented population. In fact, they’ve asserted that roughly 20–30 million people entered the U.S. illegally during Joe Biden’s presidency alone, suggesting a total undocumented population as high as 30–50 million. And Donald Trump himself has cited figures like “21 million” crossing the border, while those radical numbers are repeated by conservative media and in campaign rhetoric. As a result, agents and the rest of the government believe there are far more people to detain than there really are.
Obvious thinking is: There are 20-30 million illegal immigrants walking around – Why can’t you catch more?
What the data actually shows
Nonpartisan research organizations like Pew estimate the total undocumented population in the U.S. at around 11–12 million in recent years, not 30–50 million. Fact‑checkers such as PolitiFact repeatedly rate MAGA immigration-number claims as “Mostly False” or worse because they confuse border encounters with successful entries and ignore departures and deportations. Newsweek’s detailed review concludes that the “20 million” claim has no support in publicly available data or independent analysis.
Why the numbers get embellished
MAGA messaging often uses the idea of an “invasion” and utilizes high, large-scale numbers for immigration to create a sense of crisis and to provide justification for severe immigration-enforcement practices. Reporters/Commentators also select large, cumulative numbers of border encounters; however, they fail to explain that many such encounters are short-term and do not equate to extended or unauthorized residency in the United States. Consequently, MAGA creates a systematic and exaggerated narrative about illegal immigration versus what actual credible government and demographic data report.
The spike in shootings
By the middle of 2025, reports from major news outlets and other sources have been documenting an increase in reported firearm-related incidents where Immigration agents are involved. At least 16 shooting incidents were reported by early 2026, resulting in several fatalities, multiple injuries, and numerous other firearm-related incidents in targeted cities. Reporting on subsequent events has shown continued increases in fatality numbers as mass deportations sweep through larger areas; further evidence that it is the enforcement model used that is creating more violence than previously estimated.
How the policy feeds violence
McCabe links the shootings to specific features of Trump’s agenda: huge funding and militarized deployments into interior cities, propaganda abu them being terrorists, quotas, and a system that prioritizes volume over case-by-case judgment, and rapid, confrontational tactics like vehicle stops and raids that force split‑second decisions. … Also, the embellished numbers surely play a role.
