United States Department of Homeland Security , I.C.E (United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
JOURNALISTIC_UNMASKING // ICE Police
ABOUT ICE I: The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Homeland Security. Its stated mission is to conduct criminal investigations, enforce immigration laws, preserve national security, and protect public safety. ICE was created as part of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 following the September 11 attacks. It absorbed the prior functions of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the United States Customs Service.
ICE has two primary and distinct law enforcement components: Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). It has three supporting divisions: the Management and Program Administration, the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA), and the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR). ICE maintains domestic offices throughout the United States and detachments at major U.S. diplomatic missions overseas. ICE personnel (special agents and officers) do not patrol American borders; rather, that role is performed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Coast Guard. The acting director is Todd Lyons; the agency has not had a Senate-confirmed director since Sarah Saldaña stepped down on January 20, 2017.
ICE has been involved in multiple controversies throughout its existence, with significant increases in criticism during the first and second administration of Donald Trump. Following the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in 2025 as part of President Trump's immigration policy, ICE became the largest and most well-funded federal law enforcement agency in U.S. history. Its enforcement actions, publicity campaigns, and tactics have resulted in loss of morale, public controversy, and raised concerns over legality, accountability, and civil rights. ICE agents are noted for wearing masks, civilian clothing, and using unmarked vehicles to protect their identity. The agency has been the subject of protests, particularly in 2018 and 2025, with some activists calling for its abolition. Since its expansion, the agency has been described by critics as a growing militarized police force, secret police, a paramilitary civilian law enforcement agency, or by Rahm Emanuel as a lawless mob.
Actions
ABOUT ICE II: Actions
California National Guard with riot shields at June 2025 Los Angeles protests against ICE and mass deportation.
An image of I.C.E. "enforcement and removal operation" in Los Angeles provided by the Department of Homeland Security.
People at Federal Plaza in Manhattan protesting against ICE and mass deportation in the second presidency of Donald Trump, September 2025.
ICE again came to the forefront during the second presidency of Donald Trump, as Trump once again imposed a hardline immigration policy. Trump's administration enacted a major wave of deportations, On January 22, the DHS announced the administration was rolling back an Obama-era directive that had protected migrants in sensitive areas such as hospitals, places of worship, courtrooms, funerals, weddings and schools, giving rise to fears that certain sectors, such as the food industry, might lack workers. Two days later, acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman said the agency would deport people admitted into the United States temporarily by the Biden administration. The U.S. military was deployed to assist ICE in multiple states. The administration has used the Alien Enemies Act to quickly deport individuals subject to removal under the AEA with limited or no due process, and to be imprisoned in El Salvador. Several American citizens were detained and deported. Administration practices have faced legal issues and stoked controversy with lawyers, judges, and legal scholars. The Trump administration began setting daily targets for ICE arrests, and engaged in a controversial campaign to increase the visibility of ICE's arrests. Some have stated that ICE during this time has been targeting "Hispanic looking" people, and federal courts have found the agency to be engaged in racial profiling.
On July 21, The Guardian described ICE's "Alligator Alcatraz" in Florida as being involved in "a succession of alleged abuses at jails operated by ICE in the state since January, chronicled by the advocacy groups Human Rights Watch, Americans for Immigrant Justice, and Sanctuary of the South from interviews with detainees". People detained by ICE have reported being deprived of food, water, and showers. In the first couple of months of the second Trump administration, several people died in ICE custody. Demonstrations emerged nationwide in 2025 against ICE's immigration enforcement activity and policies, including the June 2025 Los Angeles protests. Legal and law enforcement experts described ICE's use of plainclothes arrests as resulting in a spike of ICE impersonators being arrested across the country.
Within Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law on July 4, 2025, the U.S. government allocated unprecedented funding to ICE for detention facilities, deportation operations, and additional funds to hire new agents. The bill allocates ICE with more funding than any federal law enforcement agency in U.S. history and more than the federal prison system. The expanded ICE funding is expected to lead to mass detentions and deportations, restricted access to asylum, and anticipated economic and humanitarian consequences. As a result, recruitment incentives included a $50,000 sign on bonus and $60,000 college loan forgiveness for sworn police officers.
By July 2025, multiple polls showed a majority of Americans disapproved of the agency, with strongly negative public opinion that surpassed prior negative opinion of it during the 2018 "Abolish ICE" movement. In late August, the Pew Research Center reported that its polls showed an increasingly sharp partisan divide in views of ICE, with 72% of Republican Party supporters viewing the agency favorably, and 78% of Democratic Party supporters viewing it negatively.
In 2025, at least three notable attacks targeted ICE facilities in Texas. On July 4, a group attacked an ICE detention center in Alvarado.[84] In an apparently unrelated incident on August 25, a 36-year-old was arrested at a Dallas ICE field office for claiming he had a bomb and showing officers what he said was a detonator on his wrist. The third incident occurred on September 24, when a gunman on a nearby rooftop fired a rifle at a van at the Dallas field office, killing one detainee and critically injuring two others before killing himself. One of the injured victims died six days later.
By November 2025, at least half of ICE's top leadership had been fired or reassigned, and many were replaced with Border Patrol officials. The Chicago Tribune described the shakeup as part of the Trump administration's desire to increase deportations at all costs, noting that Border Patrol's methods were less targeted than ICE's and involved stopping random people on the street and demanding to know their birthplace and citizenship status.
In late November, ICE began conducting a series of immigration raids in New Orleans, Louisiana. The operations drew significant public attention and controversy, with Mayor-elect Helena Moreno and several members of the New Orleans City Council issuing statements in December calling for increased transparency and interagency communication regarding federal enforcement activities. As of December 2025, ICE held 68,440 people in detention, nearly 40,000 of whom had no criminal record or only pending charges. Between January and December 2025 the administration had arrested over 328,000 people and deported nearly 327,000.
An ICE agent shot and killed Renée Good in her car in Minneapolis, Minnesota on January 7, 2026, causing a surge in anti-ICE protests. Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 to send federal troops to Minneapolis.
On January 7, 2026, an ICE officer shot and killed 37-year-old Renée Nicole Good during an incident in Minneapolis, Minnesota, creating considerable added controversy during protests over ICE enforcement actions involving Somali residents.
Just two weeks later, on January 25th, 2026, a man was murdered by a federal officer who shot him in Minneapolis. This event transpired at a time when public demonstrations against the Trump administration's immigration enforcement policies were widespread.
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Source: I.C.E || Wikipedia