ICE crackdown laid bare at Venice festival documentary

Oscar-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras said she ​hopes a new documentary about U.S. immigration raids will help “denormalize” violence under President Donald Trump’s ‌mass deportation campaign.

VENICE — Oscar-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras said on Monday she ​hopes a new documentary about U.S. immigration raids will help “denormalize” violence under President Donald Trump’s ‌mass deportation campaign.

Premiering at the Venice Film Festival, the 25-minute documentary “They’re Here”, co-directed by Poitras and Rachel Lauren Mueller, follows volunteers in Minneapolis as they track the movements of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents conducting deportation operations earlier this year.

“The reality is a ​nightmare. The entire country is under attack and immigrants are living in fear throughout the ​United States right now,” Poitras said ahead of the screening.

Trump ⁠launched his deportation drive immediately after taking office in January 2025. He has defended ICE’s tactics and ​argued that people who entered the U.S. illegally must be sent home.

The Minneapolis sweep drew weeks of demonstrations ​and confrontations between protesters and ICE agents in which immigration officers shot dead two U.S. citizens.