In America, hundreds of immigrants are being deported every day under President Trump’s extreme immigration policies. Even people and families who have lived in the country for years are being subjected to deportation. The primary organization enacting these policies, which you’ve surely heard of, is ICE, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
Established in 2003, ICE was founded in March, following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack and the Homeland Security Act. The ultimate goal of the organization is to enhance national security, govern U.S. borders, and enforce federal immigration laws. Following Donald Trump’s immigration policies, he successfully reverted from the policies of the Biden Administration and placed more funding into ICE enforcement and detention centers.
In 2025 alone, ICE has been responsible for the deportation of 2.5 million supposed illegal immigrants, with an additional 1.6 million who allegedly self-deported. If you were to look online, you’ll see that many people would agree with the idea that ICE is simply doing their job, and there’s nothing disagreeable about how they go about doing it.
However, if you were to look in other sections of the internet, you’d see the amount of pushback on ICE’s actions and the reasons behind them. Behold the controversy behind America’s federal immigration agency that’s supposedly “doing the Lord’s work”, as boldly proclaimed by Congressman Jim Jordan in response to the actions of ICE agents.
From one perspective, it is agreeable to say that ICE is simply just performing the tasks they’re given and the people who resist worsen the situation. But if you were to think about it from a victim’s perspective, when you take in ICE’s aggressive tactics, wouldn’t you resist?
Recently, there has been a video circulating that shows a woman in California being arrested by a group of ICE agents, and as she is resisting the arrest, several agents are attempting to manhandle her and are removing her clothing in the process. Several witnesses were advocating in defense of the victim, claiming that the agents were assaulting her and obstructing her rights. One witness claimed that the woman was only asking for street directions, while the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary, Tricia McLaughlin claimed that the woman was using her vehicle to obstruct a federal driveway.
Though there’s two sides to the story, the general image of a woman being aggressively hauled off by dark-clothed government agents in the streets of California does not make America look good. In addition to that, the agency hadn’t published any documentation on the woman’s name or citizenship and immigration status.
Actions like these create paranoia within communities and an overall distrust of federal agencies, while also making ICE appear guilty of racial profiling. ICE agents even get pay bonuses with the more immigrants they collect, which provides an incentive to perform potentially indiscriminate patrols, which ICE claims they don’t do.
There’s also the issue concerning ICE’s detention centers, where they hold the people they detain. On the ice.gov website, in their own words, they describe their detention centers as civil immigration detention facilities that are designed to “secure the presence for immigration proceedings.” Although, referring to them as “civil” is rather questionable. Records from actual detainees deem the conditions of the detention facilities as cruel and inhumane.
An investigation was conducted by a civil rights attorney, Sergio Perez, who took the firsthand account from one detainee. This man, who Perez interviewed, had claimed that detainees were placed into cramped rooms of other people, exceeding numbers past 50, and there was only one accessible toilet which was shared amongst everyone in the room. The man said that access to fresh water was limited, and he was only being fed once a day at 3 in the morning. Other detainees testified to cold room temperatures, very limited beds, and limited space. Clearly, these statements contradict what ICE believes their facilities are like, and President Trump has not made any statements on the matter at this time.
However, let it be known that there are upsides to ICE, as well. If you continue looking on the ice.gov website, you’ll see that there are a few documented criminal immigrants who did pose a significant threat to the country and were assessed by ICE.
One example is a Jordanian national, named Mohammed Abdul Kader Khalil Saleh, who served a sentence for bomber conspiracy, attempted bombing, and he was tied to the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. Saleh was also involved in other plots to bomb places, such as the United Nations, the George Washington Bridge, and U.S. military installations. He was arrested and removed from the country in January of 2024 by an ICE agency located in Buffalo, New York, ERO Buffalo. Another dangerous criminal, also removed by ERO Buffalo, was removed just a year before that. Saudi Arabian national, Wali Khan Amin Shah, served over 20 years in federal prison for acts of terrorism, ties to the Bojinka Plot, the attempted assassination Pope John Paul II and plans to crash a plane into CIA headquarters. He was removed from the country in February of 2023.
As you can see, there are major positive impacts from ICE’s work. Their role in reducing transnational crime, enforcing federal immigration laws, and promoting public safety has all proven to be beneficial to the country. Nonetheless, their drastic measures of protection still cannot be ignored. With ICE dragging people through streets and hauling them away to insufficient living facilities, it creates a stained image of America, and it actively divides the citizens living in it through creating a public uproar. This begs the question of “Is it worth it to have the face of U.S. terrorism prevention represent America as a place of madness as long as they’re doing their job semi-properly?” That’s a question you can answer for yourself. Should ICE be praised as protectors or condemned as tyrants?
