After immigrants are detained by ICE, there are probably records somewhere of who has an attorney, and who is calling family members or an attorney.
For the immigrants who aren’t calling any family or lawyers, the poorest of the poor, people with little to no connection to anyone, who may not even say which country they are from, if the administration were actually trying to kill as many disconnected immigrants as possible in secret, would society know?
For example, if the administration was composed of all types of conservative people, but 30 percent were secretly Nazis or wanted racial genocide, could there be a campaign to not just remove, but kill, immigrants, and the public doesn’t find out?
OK so it depends on what you mean by free press. I meant you can report the truth and that (usually) won’t get you arrested. I did not mean the mainstream press is always fair or honest.
There’s been a huge growth of independent journalists that give far more accurate accounts of leftist perspectives in protests, etc. Though you have to be careful because there’s plenty of dishonest independent journalists too. But if you have good media literacy and fact checking ability the information is still out there. As opposed to places where if you speak certain facts aloud you may be arrested.