If you live anywhere but under a rock, you have probably heard of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, better known as ICE. ICE is an extremely hot topic at this time, no pun intended. From its deathly encounters to its familial separations, many people argue ICE is causing problems in our society.
Many people have questions about ICE, like what can they do, who are they, why are they here? Hopefully they get answered here.
ICE was created in 2003 after the September 11th terrorist attacks. The agency was created to promote safety from terrorists in America, and to investigate potential attacks. According to the U.S Department of Homeland Security, ICE receives an annual budget of $8 billion to enforce immigration laws. They enforce these laws by detaining, deporting, and convicting unauthorized immigrants. Unauthorized immigrants are people who have come to America without valid documentation; ICE then views these people as a harm to our country. They track down the immigrants and remove them from their home to transport them to a holding facility. When they get to this facility they are “booked,” and after they are booked, they are processed, then placed in a holding facility until their hearing.
After they detain the immigrant, they are allowed reduced communications with family, though it’s difficult for family to get ahold of them. They are placed in a holding facility—such as the ones in Texas, Arizona, and California—until they can get a hearing, however with the amount of immigrants needing hearings, it can take weeks to months to get one. Due to prolonged time in the holding facility, there have been recorded deaths.
There have been seven deaths as of February 2026. Three people died of heart related problems, one from drug withdrawl with familiy members claiming he had been being denied water, two suicides, and one death following an altercation with a guard. The man, Geraldo Campos, died after having extreme compression to the chest due to restraint by an ICE officer.
What started off as a way to control terrorists within our country seems to have spiraled into permanently separating families and uncertainty.
As of late there has been a spike in problems with ICE. This could be due to the surge of new agents working for ICE, or due to lack of proper training. President Trump has stated multiple times he wants immigrants out of the country and quickly, even going as far as saying at a campaign event in Grand Rapids, Michigan, “No, they’re not humans, they’re not humans, they’re animals.”
This causes a massive spike in jobs needed to fulfill Trump’s wishes. With the surge of new people they might not get the best training. The agents, who range from already trained military, to average Joes off the street, are being rushed through complex training in a short time, causing improper reactions to situations.
In the tragic case of Renee Macklin Good, the ICE agent who shot and killed her, Jonathan Ross, claims it was self-defense. However, according to Mark Brown, a former ICE trainer, the handbook of ICE says “firearms shall not be discharged solely to disable moving vehicles.” Brown then goes onto say the handbook also states if an officer is threatened they can use deadly force. The contradicting handbook and training ICE agents receive might not be enough to have them safely on the streets, especially when the agents are doing the complete opposite of what ICE was originally created to do: protect the American people.
The agents have also been doing more “at-large” arrests. This is where the agents go out into the streets of the community to arrest someone. This gives the people of America more exposure to the agents, leading to mass protesting, like what took place in Minneapolis, and civilian casualties. The case of Alex Pretti is a prime example of how an at-large arrest put the community in danger. Exposing innocent civilians to masked men with guns and expecting them to remain calm is a simple-minded idea. Of course the civilians are going to protest, and try to prevent members of their community from being displaced. The agents had no valid reason to shoot and kill Pretti; Pretti and Good are victims of the American government’s carelessness.
To answer the three questions about ICE listed at the start of the article: what can they do, who are they, why are they here? It seems that ICE agents can detain and deport illegal immigrants under the Immigration and Nationality Act, they are any random people that want extra money, and they are here to “Make America Great Again.”
