“We’ll Smash the Fucking Window Out and Drag Him Out”
by Nicole Foy and McKenzie Funk This story contains videos and descriptions of violent arrests. ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published. A month into the new Trump administration, on the predawn streets of suburban Maryland, a high-ranking ICE official stood alongside a Mazda sedan that his officers had just stopped. The official told a local TV reporter at the scene what was about to happen. “He can either give us a license,” he said, “ or we’ll smash the fucking window out and drag him out .” Then, as the driver refused to exit the car, officers broke the glass. It was one of nearly 50 documented instances of immigration agents breaking vehicle windows that ProPublica has identified from social media, local news accounts, lawsuits and interviews since President Donald Trump took office six months ago. Using the same methods, we found just eight in the previous decade. Neither numb...