ICE faces oversight concerns after recent series of agent arrests, analysis finds

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FILE-ICE agents approach a house before detaining two people on January 13, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

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An examination of public records found that multiple ICE employees and contractors have been arrested over the past couple of years.

Records obtained and reviewed by the Associated Press noted that some of the cases included roughly 17 arrests who have been convicted and six others who are awaiting trial.

In 2025, nine ICE workers were charged, including an agent cited for assaulting a protester near Chicago while off duty.

Most of the reported cases occurred before Congress voted in 2025 to give ICE $75 billion to hire more agents and detain more individuals.

ICE agents arrested

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The recent arrests of ICE agents have made headlines, bringing unwanted attention to the agency, which is responsible for removing people from the country illegally.

Here are some of the reported arrests of agents.

Samuel Saxon, the assistant ICE field office supervisor in Cincinnati, has been jailed since his arrest in December 2025 on charges that he attempted to strangle his girlfriend.

The Associated Press reported that Saxon abused the woman for years, fracturing her hip and nose and causing internal bleeding, a judge found in a ruling ordering him detained pending trial. ICE told the AP Saxon is considered absent without leave.

Alexander Back, 41, pleaded not guilty to attempted enticement of a minor. ICE told the AP Back is on administrative leave while the agency investigates. Back, an ICE employment eligibility auditor, allegedly told police in Minnesota "I’m ICE, boys," in November 2025 when he was arrested in a sting as he went to meet a person he believed was a 17-year-old prostitute.

In October 2025, Guillermo Diaz-Torres, an ICE officer, was arrested by police in Chicago for driving under the influence. Torres pleaded not guilty and has been put on administrative duty pending an investigation. Officers found Torres passed out in a crashed car after he completed his shift at a detention center and had his government firearm in the vehicle.

Scott Deiseroth, an ICE officer, was stopped by officers for driving drunk with his two children in the car in August 2025. Deiseroth attempted to get out of charges by pointing to his law enforcement and military service.

According to the AP, Deiseroth was sentenced to probation and community service and is on administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation.

In a separate case, ICE supervisor Koby Williams was arrested in 2022 in a sting by authorities in Othello, Washington, while going to a hotel room to meet who he thought was a 13-year-old girl he’d arranged to pay for sex.

Citing public records, the AP reported that Williams drove his government vehicle, which was filled with cash, alcohol, pills, and Viagra, and was carrying his ICE badge and loaded government gun.

Williams claimed to police that he was going to the hotel to "rescue" the teen girl as part of a human trafficking investigation. He is currently serving jail time.

ICE cases involved force, abuse, and corruption

Big picture view:

An Associated Press review revealed a pattern of charges involving ICE workers and contractors who mistreated vulnerable people in their custody.

A former top official at an ICE contract facility in Texas was sentenced to probation on Feb. 4 after admitting he grabbed a handcuffed detainee by the neck and slammed him into a wall in 2025. The AP noted that prosecutors reduced the charge from a felony to a misdemeanor.

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

An off-duty ICE agent near Chicago has been charged with misdemeanor battery for throwing to the ground a 68-year-old protester who was filming him at a gas station in December 2025. McLaughlin has said the agent acted in self-defense.

Meanwhile, the AP’s review also discovered several cases of ICE officials being charged with abusing their power for financial gain.

In Houston, an ICE deportation officer in Houston in 2025 on charges that he accepted cash bribes from bail bondsmen in exchange for removing detainers ICE had placed on their clients targeting them for deportation.

ICE "indefinitely suspended" the officer before his arrest a year later. The office pleaded not guilty to seven counts of accepting bribes and was released from custody while awaiting trial.

According to the Associated Press, a former supervisor in ICE’s New York City office allegedly provided confidential information about people’s immigration statuses to acquaintances and made an arrest in exchange for gifts and other gain. In November 2024, the ex-supervisor was arrested and pleaded not guilty while awaiting trial.

Additionally, two ICE investigators in Utah were sentenced to prison in 2025 for a plot in which they made money stealing synthetic drugs known as "bath salts" from government custody and selling them through government informants.

The Source: Information for this story was provided by an Associated Press analysis of public records involving cases of ICE employees and contractors who have been arrested in the past couple of years.

Crime and Public Safety Immigration U.S.