Democracy Was the Target, DEI Was the Scapegoat: Key Pictures of 2025

Demonstrators stand off against law enforcement on horseback during a protest in Los Angeles on June 14. Photo: Ethan Swope/AP

Columbia University alumnus Jess Pearce is arrested during a protest outside the campus during the university’s graduation ceremony in New York City on May 21. Photo: Alex Kent/The New York Times/Redux

Hand and leg restraints left over from a previous deportation flight await collection at Immigration and Customs Enforcement Alexandria Staging Facility in Alexandria, La., on May 29. Photo: Christopher Lee for TIME

A person is detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents inside a fast food restaurant under construction in Charlotte, N.C., on Nov. 19. The man sustained injuries to his face while agents wrestled him to the ground after he tried to run. Federal Agents are carrying out “Operation Charlotte’s Web,” an immigration enforcement surge across the Charlotte region. Photo: Ryan Murphy/Getty Images

People pray outside the Parkchester Jame Masjid mosque during the funeral for NYPD Officer Didarul Islam in the Bronx, on July 31. Photo: Amir Hamja/The New York Times/Redux

A child weeps as her father is mistakenly detained by federal immigration officers at the U.S.immigration court in Manhattan, on June 30. Photo: David ‘Dee’ Delgado/Reuters

Michael Woolf, minister at Lake Street Church of Evanston, is detained by Illinois State Police during a protest against immigration actions, outside the Broadview ICE facility in Chicago, on Nov. 14. Photo: Jim Vondruska/Reuters