At least two dozen U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees and contractors have been charged with crimes since 2020, and the wrongdoing includes patterns of physical and sexual abuse, corruption and other misuses of authority, a review by The Associated Press found.
While most cases happened before Congress voted last year to give ICE $75 billion to hire more agents and detain more people, experts say such crimes could accelerate given the volume of new employees and their empowerment to use aggressive tactics to deport people.
Almost every law enforcement agency contends with bad employees. But ICE’s rapid growth and mission to deport millions are unprecedented, and the immense power that officers exercise over vulnerable populations can lead to abuses.
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said that wrongdoing was not widespread in the agency, and that ICE “takes allegations of misconduct by its employees extremely seriously.” She said that most new hires have worked for other law enforcement agencies, and that their backgrounds were thoroughly vetted.
“America can be proud of the professionalism our officers bring to the job day-in and day-out,” she said.
Here are some takeaways from AP’s findings:
ICE announced last month that it had doubled in size in less than one year, to 22,000 employees, after a frenetic hiring spree.
After the Border Patrol doubled in size to more than 20,000 agents over a 7-year period ending in 2011, it was embarrassed by a wave of corruption, abuse and other misconduct by some of the new employees.
Former U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske recalled cases of agents who accepted bribes to let cars carrying drugs enter the U.S. or who became involved in human trafficking. He said ICE will likely see even more serious problems.
ICE agents are particularly “vulnerable to unnecessary use of force issues,” given that they are conducting enforcement operations while facing protests, Kerlikowske said. With the number of people in ICE detention rapidly growing to 70,000, there are more opportunities for misconduct involving employees and contractors responsible for overseeing detainees.
Arrests of ICE personnel over the last year have been a headache for the agency, which has labeled many of the people they deport as the “worst of the worst” because of their rap sheets.
The AP found at least nine such arrests across the country. They include the assistant ICE field office supervisor in Cincinnati, who has been jailed since December after a judge found he was a danger to the public who had violently assaulted his girlfriend for years.
Two ICE employees in Minnesota faced federal sexual misconduct charges related to underage girls last year, including an employment eligibility auditor arrested in a sting operation in November. The auditor has pleaded not guilty. An ICE investigator in the state pleaded guilty to sending images and videos of himself having sex with a 17-year-old girl, whose background he searched in a law enforcement database.
Two ICE agents face charges for incidents that occurred outside Chicago while they were off-duty but which involved their agency work. One was charged last month with assaulting a protester who was filming him at a gas station. Another was cited for driving drunk shortly after leaving work at a detention center with his government firearm in the vehicle.
The AP’s review found a pattern of charges involving ICE employees and contractors who mistreated vulnerable people in their care.
A former top official at an ICE contract facility in Texas was sentenced to probation on Feb. 4 after acknowledging he grabbed a handcuffed detainee by the neck and slammed him into a wall last year. Prosecutors had downgraded the charge from a felony to a misdemeanor.
In December, an ICE contractor pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a detainee at a detention facility in Louisiana. Prosecutors said the man had sexual encounters with a Nicaraguan national over a five-month period in 2025 as he instructed other detainees to act as lookouts.
Other similarities involved ICE officials charged with abusing their power for financial gain.
A deportation officer in Houston was indicted last year on charges that he repeatedly accepted cash bribes from bail bondsmen in exchange for removing detainers ICE had placed on their clients targeting them for deportation. He has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of accepting bribes and was released from custody while awaiting trial.
Two Utah-based ICE investigators were sentenced to prison last year for a scheme in which they made hundreds of thousands of dollars stealing synthetic drugs known as “bath salts” from government custody and selling them for profit through government informants.
FILE - A federal agent wears a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement badge in New York, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)
RIO RICO, Ariz. (AP) — A person was detained for questioning Tuesday in the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie, hours after the FBI released surveillance videos of a masked person wearing a handgun holster outside Guthrie’s front door the night she vanished from her Arizona home.
Deputies detained the person during a traffic stop south of Tucson, according to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.
The department and the FBI were conducting a court-authorized search Tuesday night at a location in Rio Rico, about an hour’s drive south of Tucson, the department said in a statement. It was expected to take several hours.
The department did not immediately provide details about the person or the location. The FBI referred questions to the sheriff's office.
Guthrie disappeared on Feb. 1 and since then the case has gripped the nation. Until Tuesday, it seemed authorities were making little headway in determining what happened to the 84-year-old mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie or finding who was responsible.
Savannah Guthrie and her two siblings have released a series of video statements pleading for the return of their mother and indicating a willingness to pay a ransom. Authorities have described Nancy Guthrie as mentally sound but with limited mobility. She takes several medications and there was concern from the start that she could die without them, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has said repeatedly.
The community of Rio Rico — population 20,000 — is roughly an hour's drive from Guthrie's home and about 15 miles (24 kilometers) north of the U.S.-Mexico border.
The videos released earlier Tuesday show a person wearing a ski mask and a backpack. At one point, they tilt their head down and away from a doorbell camera while approaching Guthrie's front door. The footage also shows the person holding a flashlight in their mouth and trying to cover the camera with a gloved hand and part of a plant ripped from the yard.
The videos — less than a combined minute in length — gave investigators and the public their first glimpse of who was outside Guthrie's home in the foothills outside Tucson. But the images did not show what happened to her or help determine whether she is still alive.
FBI Director Kash Patel said the “armed individual” appeared to "have tampered with the camera." It was not entirely clear whether there was a gun in the holster.
The videos were pulled from data on "back-end systems” after investigators spent days trying to find lost, corrupted or inaccessible images, Patel said.
“This will get the phone ringing for lots of potential leads,” said former FBI agent Katherine Schweit. “Even when you have a person who appears to be completely covered, they’re really not. You can see their girth, the shape of their face, potentially their eyes or mouth.”
Tuesday afternoon, authorities were back near Guthrie’s neighborhood, using vehicles to block her driveway. A few miles away, law enforcement was going door-to-door in the area where daughter Annie Guthrie lives, talking with neighbors as well as walking through a drainage area and examining the inside of a culvert with a flashlight.
Investigators have said for more than a week that they believe Nancy Guthrie was taken against her will. She was last seen at home Jan. 31 and reported missing the next day. DNA tests showed blood on her porch was hers, authorities said.
Until now, authorities have released few details, leaving it unclear if ransom notes demanding money with deadlines already passed were authentic, and whether the Guthrie family has had any contact with whoever took Guthrie.
Savannah Guthrie posted the new surveillance images on social media Tuesday, saying the family believes their mother is still alive and offering phone numbers for the FBI and county sheriff. Within minutes, the post had thousands of comments.
Investigators had hoped cameras would turn up evidence right away about how Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her home in an secluded neighborhood.
But the doorbell camera was disconnected early on Feb. 1. While software recorded movement at the home minutes later, Guthrie did not have an active subscription, so Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos had initially said none of the footage could be recovered. Officials continued working to get the footage.
Heartbreaking messages by Savannah Guthrie and her family shifted from hopeful to bleak as they made pleas for whoever took Nancy Guthrie. In a video just ahead of a purported ransom deadline Monday, Savannah Guthrie appeared alone and spoke directly to the public.
“We are at an hour of desperation,” she said. “We need your help.”
Much of the nation is closely following the case involving the longtime anchor of NBC’s morning show.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump watched the new surveillance footage and was in “pure disgust,” encouraging anyone with information to call the FBI.
The FBI this week began posting digital billboards about the case in major cities from Texas to California.
Connor Hagan, a spokesperson for the FBI, said Monday that the agency was not aware of ongoing communication between Guthrie’s family and any suspected kidnappers. Authorities also had not identified any suspects, he said.
Three days after the search began, Savannah Guthrie and her two siblings sent their first public appeal to whoever took their mother, saying, “We want to hear from you, and we are ready to listen.”
In the recorded video, Guthrie said her family was aware of media reports about a ransom letter, but they first wanted proof their mother was alive.
"Please reach out to us,” they said.
The next day, Savannah Guthrie’s brother again made a plea, saying, “Whoever is out there holding our mother, we want to hear from you. We haven’t heard anything directly."
Then over the past weekend, the family posted another video — one that was more cryptic and generated even more speculation about Nancy Guthrie's fate.
“We received your message, and we understand. We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her,” said Savannah Guthrie, flanked by her siblings. “This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay.”
Golden reported from Seattle and Seewer from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press reporters Darlene Superville in Washington, Ed White in Detroit, and Mike Balsamo, Eric Tucker and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this report.
An investigator looks inside a culvert in the neighborhood where Annie Guthrie, whose mother Nancy Guthrie has been missing for more than a week, lives just outside Tucson, Ariz., on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
A member of the Pima County Sheriff's Department stands in front of the front door of the house of Nancy Guthrie, the missing mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026, in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
A Pima County Sheriff's Office member stands next to his vehicle in front of Nancy Guthrie's home Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026 in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
FILE - This image provided by the Pima County Sheriff's Department on Feb. 2, 2026, shows a missing person alert for Nancy Guthrie. (Pima County Sheriff's Department via AP, File)
A small vigil grows near Nancy Guthrie‘s house, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026 in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
A woman walks her dog past a Pima county sheriff's vehicle parked in front of Nancy Guthrie's home on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026 in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
A member of the Pima county sheriff's office walks around Nancy Guthrie's home on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026 in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
