![\"Dave](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/6aaa0b33-2f33-4e53-8a26-5150f09b3f05_1734039656.jpg\")
<\/a>LEE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\nImmigration and Customs Enforcement arrested nearly 50,000 people in July, marking the highest single-month total during the second Trump administration, with Florida and Texas accounting for nearly 20,000 of those arrests, according to data from the University of California, Berkeley. <\/p>\n
On Palm Beach Boulevard, ICE operations have been particularly active this week, with agents seen pulling people over and taking nearly all of them into custody. Videos captured by two local ICE observers, Jen and Glenda, show agents breaking the driver\u2019s side window of a vehicle off U.S.-41 and forcibly removing the driver. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re absolutely terrified,\u201d Jen said. <\/p>\n
Jen and Glenda, who asked for their identities to be shielded for safety reasons, document ICE arrests by taking pictures and videos, which they send to the American Civil Liberties Union for review. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t even necessarily ask for your identification. They get out of the car, they snatch and grab,\u201d Jen said. <\/p>\n
Glenda emphasized their role as observers. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are there to document what is happening. Not engage. Not impede,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
The pair have documented dozens of cases, describing the emotional toll of witnessing vulnerable individuals being taken into custody. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the worst thing I\u2019ve ever seen in my life. It\u2019s hard. It exhausts us and angers us to see these vulnerable innocent people being often brutalized,\u201d Jen said. <\/p>\n
ICE issued a statement Monday, saying, \u201cEvery day, DHS is conducting law enforcement activities across the country to keep Americans safe. DHS does not discuss ongoing or future operations.\u201d <\/p>\n
When asked about the perception that those arrested are criminals, Jen said, \u201cA lot of them do have papers and are productive citizens, and most are not criminals. They\u2019re certainly not murderers and rapists.\u201d <\/p>\n
Both Jen and Glenda confirmed they are unpaid volunteers. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re both volunteers. This is fully volunteer work,\u201d Jen said. <\/p>\n
Responding to ICE labeling them as agitators, Glenda said, \u201cWe are the most peaceful, respectful, calm white middle-aged women you could probably meet.\u201d <\/p>\n
The observers shared stories of families being separated, with U.S. citizen children left alone after their parents were taken into custody. <\/p>\n
\u201cEven if we don\u2019t witness it, we get word from families that the parent has been taken and the children are all alone and fending for themselves. And these are U.S. citizen children,\u201d Jen said. <\/p>\n
Both women admitted the emotional toll of their work. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe cry. We cry a lot. I pray it will [end] because it can\u2019t go on like this,\u201d Jen said. <\/p>\n
ICE has not disclosed how many people have been taken into custody during these operations.<\/p>\n
DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app<\/a>\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida volunteers document ICE arrests reaching record high in July LEE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Immigration and Customs Enforcement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[23727,5173,78462,4248,28,30,6767,29,153118,897,80173,153122,11611,12831,153123,153120,8533,77506,152991,8807,557,33876,68697,153119,153124,153121,7859],"class_list":["post-381475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-aclu","tag-dhs","tag-dolly-parton","tag-family-separation","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-immigration","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-volunteers","tag-fort-myers","tag-ice-arrests","tag-ice-observers","tag-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","tag-immigration-enforcement","tag-jen-and-glenda","tag-july-arrests","tag-market","tag-nail","tag-new-instrument","tag-palm-beach-boulevard","tag-palm-beach-county","tag-record-high","tag-second-trump-administration","tag-texas-arrests","tag-u-s-citizen-children","tag-university-of-california-berkeley","tag-us-41"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}