Knight files resolution condemning ICE’s violent, masked attacks on communities
STATE HOUSE – As his first order of business in the 2026 legislative session, Rep. Jason Knight today filed a resolution condemning the needlessly aggressive and violent enforcement tactics employed in Rhode Island by masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents with the blessing of the Trump administration.
The resolution denounces the military-style immigration raids and arrests ICE has been conducting nationwide since early 2025 at work sites, public spaces and private homes, “creating a climate of fear among immigrants dropping their children off at school, going to work, attending faith services, seeking medical or emergency services or shopping for essential needs.”
One such raid occurred in Warren on Veterans Day, when masked agents — who’d spent hours in the area in unmarked vehicles without notifying local police — forcibly removed an employee of Blount Fine Foods from his vehicle on a busy local street and detained him for deportation.
“ICE’s violent tactics at workplaces, school and courthouses are obviously not targeting dangerous criminals — they are about scaring people in our community. ICE agents wearing masks are behaving as though they are SWAT teams going after heavily armed drug kingpins when they are, in fact, just snatching ordinary people going to work or bringing their kids to school. And in many cases, ICE’s sloppy effort is sweeping up not only people without records, but also people who have legal status,” said Representative Knight (D-Dist. 67, Barrington, Warren). “That’s not making communities safer – it’s terrifying them and putting people in danger, particularly those with certain skin colors or accents. Our state absolutely must stand up to this un-American perversion of justice.”
The resolution points to ICE agents’ practice of concealing their identities, wearing masks and often plain clothes and unmarked vehicles, which further sows uncertainty and distrust in the community.
“Cruel and unusual detainment tactics and the concealment of ICE agents’ identities are not requisite for effective, comprehensive immigration enforcement or public safety, as prior administrations successfully fulfilled ICE’s mission with comparable levels of deportations while prioritizing known criminals,” the resolution states.
Recent data shows that the Trump administration’s approach has, in fact, reduced the share of undocumented detainees with criminal convictions from 65 percent in October 2024 to 35 percent in September 2025, while dramatically increasing arrests of individuals with only immigration-related violations. Those rose from 6 percent to 35 percent over the same period.
The resolution points to the chilling effect ICE’s tactics have had on the willingness of Latinos and immigrants to report a crime, trust in law enforcement and participate in court proceedings. In recent months, ICE teams have hovered outside courthouses in Rhode Island, reportedly taking many people into custody and, in one widely reported case, attempting to apprehend a 16-year-old court intern who they’d misidentified, threatening to break the windows of the Superior Court judge who’d taken the intern into his car to protect him.