Ever since Donald Trump reclaimed the White House for his second non-consecutive term as President of the United States, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have conducted raids nationwide, enforcing the Trump regime’s increasingly harsh anti-immigrant policies with less and less accountability. According to a report from the American Immigration Council dated 14 January 2026, most of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants locked up in detention centers, rampant with extreme overcrowding, medical neglect, prolonged isolation, and physical abuse, have no criminal records whatsoever.
Carlos Santana. Photo by James Conrad.
Fader magazine also reports that many ICE raids have targeted workplaces and private residences and that civilian immigrants have been apprehended while on their way to school or leaving their Green Card interviews. This alone goes to show that the Trump regime doesn't care even if an immigrant is going through the proper channels to establish legal residency in the United States.
Foreign visitors to the United States have also been turned away simply for criticizing Trump in their private correspondence, despite the First, Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments giving them the freedom to do so. Two prominent cases include that of an unnamed scientist from France who was due to arrive at a conference near Houston, Texas on assignment from Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, and the veteran British punk rock band U.K. Subs.
In an interview with I-D magazine dating from September 2025, Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny intimated that he deliberately avoided the United States during his ongoing world tour to prevent ICE from raiding his shows and targeting his fans. This is yet another example of how the United States has become a dangerous country to visit even by its own standards.
When Bad Bunny performed at the Superbowl, there was abundant concern that ICE would storm into the stadium. Although so far, no high-profile events have been raided by ICE, in January 2026, concertgoers at an all-ages rock venue in Minneapolis clashed with ICE officers raiding the convenience store next door, with some of them being beaten and pepper-sprayed. More recently, Chicago canceled its Cinco de Mayo parade owing to safety concerns amid the hostile political climate for immigrants created by the Trump regime.
Jose Feliciano. Photo by James Conrad.
For the benefit of protecting venues, stage technicians, performers and audiences alike, Kim Warnick, a program director at the progressive, anti-authoritarian non-profit Western State Center, headed a team to assemble a free guide to enable people connected in any way with the live entertainment industry to understand their rights and protect their communities.
The general guiding principles in this manual advise venue owners and managers to be prepared, understand and assert their rights and those of their guests, and to remain calm. More specifically, venue owners are recommended to train and establish law enforcement liaisons on their staff, establish a rapid-response network of emergency contacts, learn to recognize if law enforcement is at the door, and learn the difference between judicial warrants (served in criminal investigations) and administrative warrants (issued by government agencies such as ICE).
Kim Warnick also advises anyone who sets foot inside a live entertainment venue to attend a free online know-your-rights training. Human rights organizations like Right To Be and the American Civil Liberties Union offer such programs, which are usually one hour long.
“You can be a stronger ally and friend by taking that step to really be prepared,” she says.
