Background The 1876
US Supreme Court case
Chy Lung v. Freeman established the power of the
US federal government to set and enforce rules regarding immigration. The
Immigration Act of 1891 created a commissioner of immigration in the
Treasury Department. In 1903, immigration was transferred to the purview of the
Department of Commerce and Labor and, after it split in 1913, to the
Department of Labor. The
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was established in 1933. In 1940, with increasing concern about
national security, services relating to immigration and naturalization were organized under the authority of the
Department of Justice.
Origins and initial activities , 2009 The
Immigration and Naturalization Service (under the
Justice Department) and the
United States Customs Service (under the
Treasury Department) were dissolved on March 1, 2003, when the
Homeland Security Act of 2002 transferred most of their functions to three new entities –
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) – within the newly created
United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as part of a major government reorganization following the
September 11 attacks of 2001. The agency operates with a significant budget and workforce. The agencies that were either moved entirely or merged in part into ICE included: • The criminal investigative and intelligence resources of the
United States Customs Service • The criminal investigative, detention and deportation resources of the
Immigration and Naturalization Service • The
Federal Protective Service The Federal Protective Service was later transferred from ICE to the
National Protection and Programs Directorate effective October 28, 2009. In 2003,
Asa Hutchinson moved the
Federal Air Marshals Service from the
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to ICE, but
Michael Chertoff moved them back to the TSA in 2005. In February 2005, ICE began
Operation Community Shield, a national law enforcement initiative that targets violent transnational street gangs through the use of ICE's broad law enforcement powers, including the unique and powerful authority to remove criminal immigrants, including undocumented immigrants and legal permanent residents.
Obama administration Between 2009 and 2016, the
Barack Obama administration oversaw the deporting of a record 2.4 million undocumented immigrants who had entered the United States, earning him the nickname "Deporter-In-Chief" by
Janet Murguía, the president of
National Council of La Raza. According to ICE data, about 40% of those deported by ICE in 2015 had no criminal conviction, while a majority of those convicted were guilty of minor charges. Statistics of record deportations were partly due to a change in how deportations were counted that began during the Bush administration and continued under the Obama administration.
20172021: First Trump administration Actions Following a
presidential campaign that centered immigration policy,
Donald Trump enacted in his
first presidency (2017–2021) a hardline
immigration policy intended to reduce immigration. Shortly after taking office, he signed an executive order to increase ICE's staffing by 10,000 people, and to vastly expand ICE's immigration enforcement powers. While ICE largely prioritized people charged with serious crimes during the
Obama administration, Trump's first administration directed the agency to target anybody it believed had entered the United States illegally. ICE began engaging in high-profile raids at places of employment, places of worship, and places of education. In 2018, a total of 19 HSI special agents in charge or SACs (who are the senior most officials in each investigative division) sent a letter to DHS secretary
Kirstjen Nielsen and asked to be formally separated from ICE. These 19 SACs explained that HSI's investigative mission was repeatedly being hamstrung by ICE's civil immigration enforcement mission, Other grassroots protests sprung up across the nation as well. On August 1, 2019, a month-long peaceful protest event was started outside the San Francisco ICE office, where protesters beat drums and demanded that family separation at the border be stopped. In addition to blocking ICE facilities, protesters are also protesting technology companies such as Microsoft for providing technology to aid ICE. One such instance of this was the sit-in at the
Microsoft store on
5th Avenue in NYC led by Close the Camps NYC on September 14, 2019. In the 2020 protests and riots in
Portland, Oregon, the local ICE office had its window broken.
20212025: Biden administration During
Joe Biden's presidency, approximately 4 million removals and expulsions were recorded at the U.S.–Mexico border. The totals included multiple crossings made by the same individuals, particularly during the
COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the Biden administrations
Priority Enforcement Program, the
American Immigration Council found, from February to November 2021, nearly half (49.8 percent) of
detainers were carried out against people in the “other” category, nearly a third (33.2 percent) of arrests fell under the “other” category and 23.4 percent of removals were also classified as “other.” As of October 2023, ICE held approximately 30,000 individuals in detention facilities across the United States. ICE's increasing use of
solitary confinement under Biden was criticized.
2025present: Second Trump administration Recruitment Initial actions with
riot shields at
June 2025 Los Angeles protests against ICE and
mass deportation. off the street in
Somerville, Massachusetts for an
op-ed she co-wrote for
The Tufts Daily. 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. 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. 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. 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, two notable incidents targeted ICE facilities in Texas. This included the July 4,
2025 Alvarado ICE facility incident, and the
2025 Dallas ICE facility shooting where a shooter killed one detainee and critically injured 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 which drew public attention and controversy. 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.
2026 killings of American citizens Beginning in December 2025, ICE began
Operation Metro Surge in
Minnesota, which was characterized by local police and journalists as an escalation in the severity and brutality of ICE tactics, harassment and threats against observers, the
detention of US citizens, and the arrest of 3,000 people. 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. A January 22, 2026, nationwide Times/Sinema poll found 63% of Americans thought that as a whole, ICE as an agency had gone "too far". On January 24, 2026, ICU nurse
Alex Pretti was pepper-sprayed, restrained, shot and killed by DHS agents after he attempted to protect a woman who had been shoved to the ground by federal agents. This event transpired at a time when public demonstrations against the Trump administration's immigration enforcement policies were widespread. Government statements in the aftermath stoked added controversy by making claims that contradict video footage taken by other protestors. Following the killings, Democratic officials in Congress made attempts to reform ICE and CBP, although they were opposed by Republicans.
Conflicts with the judiciary In response to ICE raids in Los Angeles, federal judges found that ICE was engaging in
racial profiling, and ICE ignored a court order to stop its activities in LA. A Reuters review of six violent encounters found ICE officials making statements that were later contradicted by video and other evidence in court.
The Los Angeles Times reported that ICE's "loss of credibility" had resulted in repeated losses in court cases. By February 2026,
The New York Times reported "federal judges have found that the Trump administration has been ignoring longstanding legal interpretations that mandate the release of many people who are taken into immigration custody if they post a bond", resulting in lawsuits and many releases.
Protests and criticism the day after
Renée Good was killed, protesters chant "Abolish ICE!" ICE's aggressive policing tactics and arrests by masked agents in public areas were frequently captured on cameras by bystanders, often leading to accusations of "kidnapping" and were criticized as intentionally seeking to spread fear. ICE's use of masks and balaclavas, military-style tactical gear, and lack of visible identification and uniforms were criticized as intimidation tactics and raised concerns over a lack of accountability. ICE has been widely criticized as acting like a
secret police, detaining people without charge.
The Guardian described criticism of ICE as being portrayed as a "rogue agency" that does Trump's bidding. It described the lines between federal law enforcement and Trump's private armed force as becoming blurred. It wrote:
The Atlantic described ICE's lowering of recruitment standards, such as reducing the age to join to 18 years among other efforts as resulting in new recruits "seeing the position not as a federal-law-enforcement career but as a chance to serve as a foot soldier in Trump's mission to bring sweeping social and demographic change"; describing its rapid buildup as a result of Trump officials wanting to "change the agency's character by flooding it with new hires who are inspired by MAGA ideology rather than by the typical perks of a federal badge". It also highlighted existing conservative ICE agents worried that "a historic chance to reform the agency will be squandered by incompetence and shady deals with well-connected contractors". Existing ICE agents interviewed by
The Atlantic and
Reuters described low-morale from overwork, describing them as being "vilified by broad swaths of the public and bullied by Trump officials demanding more and more". Agents within ICE's HSI division criticized the shelving of new cases on drugs, human smuggling, and child exploitation in order to make immigration-enforcement arrests. Several career officers were pushed out of leadership roles or quit among several purges of staff. Some ICE officers were described as being "thrilled" by recent changes and the ability to not worry about being too aggressive, while others were disturbed of videos of "officers smashing suspects' car windows and appearing to round up people indiscriminately" as making ICE a "caricature" of itself. in Broadview, Illinois in 2025. Writing for
Politico,
Joshua Zeitz described ICE as transforming "into a massive, un-uniformed, masked domestic army" that "critics fear will have carte blanche to arrest, detain and deport persons without cause or due process, whether they enjoy legal status or not". He added that its aggressive tactics risked backfiring on the administration, and compared increasing agitation over immigration arrests to violent responses among previously uninterested citizens following the passage of the
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. ICE agents received criticism for having detained and imprisoned foreigners at the border with delayed explanation and legal counsel, and in one incident harassed and handcuffed
Brad Lander, an opposition politician who was attempting to accompany a man out of a courtroom.
The Economist summarized criticism of the growth of ICE and its true motivations, writing that:
The Economist described ICE's focus on targeting left-leaning and Democratic cities as political, punitive, and not based in immigration enforcement, noting that many cities and states targeted by ICE were not those with the highest percentages of illegal immigrants. Criminologist
Geoffrey Alpert described the focus as having "now turned from professional policing to politics".
The Economist described a "more obvious interpretation" from left-leaning criticism of ICE as wanting to provoke protestors to violence, "thereby justifying the deployment of federal agents and strengthening the case for a crackdown". White House deputy chief of staff
Stephen Miller's description of peaceful protestors as "insurrectionists" and "domestic terrorists" was described as a potential prelude to invoking the
Insurrection Act. Writing for
The Conversation, associate professor Erica De Bruin on policing and state security forces stated that ICE fit the first description of a paramilitary as "highly militarized police forces" with "military-grade weapons and equipment" for domestic policing, and partly met the second description of a paramilitary as being "repressive political agents". She described ICE as operating with less oversight owing to exemptions from constitutional amendments prohibiting unreasonable search and seizure; acting in more "overtly political ways" such as being deployed against political opponents in non-immigration contexts through policing protests; and that ICE's union endorsed Trump in 2020 with 95% of its members in agreement and was targeting new recruits with far-right messaging. Political scientist
Elizabeth F. Cohen found that ICE has gathered data to "surveil citizens' political beliefs and activities – including protest actions they have taken on issues as far afield as gun control – in addition to immigrants' rights." It compared ICE as the latest example of a long history of paramilitary forces and violence in America, highlighting the
Texas Rangers' 1918
Porvenir massacre,
Grover Cleveland's use of the Army during the
Pullman Strike of 1894, the
Pinkerton Detective Agency of the 19th and 20th centuries, and the
Ku Klux Klan during the
Reconstruction era; but stated none of the prior groups were as big, well-equipeed or as organized as ICE.
Ishaan Tharoor of
The Washington Post wrote that comparisons of ICE to a paramilitary had "wrought unflattering comparisons abroad to unaccountable paramilitary forces" abroad; writing that: "analysts see the expansion of a new "paramilitary" force more aligned with the political dispensation in Washington". It described foreigners as having increasingly compared ICE to an interior ministry, with former national security, CIA and DHS official Steven Cash writing that DHS and "Its sprawling law-enforcement elements have been remade into a paramilitary force: heavily armed, lightly restrained, and increasingly insulated from meaningful oversight" and that immigration enforcement "has been transformed from a regulatory and investigative function into a domestic security apparatus operating in American communities with a posture that looks far less like civilian law enforcement and far more like internal security services abroad." Writing for
The Atlantic,
Anne Applebaum compared ICE to "a type of national police force, backed, in some cases, by soldiers from the National Guard" and "a masked and heavily armed paramilitary". Margy O'Harron at NYU's
Brennan Center for Justice said that:
Wired described ICE's Special Response Teams (SRT), CBP's one SRT, and the
Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC) as "paramilitary tactical units" that "behave not like local police, but instead like special forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, or other far-flung battlefields from the Forever Wars of the past quarter century." A
New York Times investigation found that ICE and CBP units regularly used military equipment in non-threatening, day-to-day operations. It highlighted the use of suppressors, MAWLs, M-LOK rails, dump pouches, RCM magwells, and with "helmets, camouflage and tactical gear" that "all look straight from the battlefield".
Protests Demonstrations emerged nationwide in 2025 against ICE's immigration enforcement activity and policies. As early as April 2025, public sentiment shifted against deportations, with a majority of Americans finding the amount went "too far", and Gallup polling showing positive views of immigration as increasing "significantly". In an August 2025 poll by
Pew Research Center ICE was rated the third least favorably viewed agency in the United States out of 16 that were surveyed ahead of only the
Department of Justice and the
IRS, with 49% approving and 40% disapproving. Views of ICE were also the most polarized among all agencies polled, with Republicans viewing it as their third-most favorably viewed agency polled behind only the
National Weather Service and
National Park Service, with 72% approving and 21% disapproving. While it was the least favorably viewed agency by Democrats, with 78% disapproval and 13% approval. In October 2025, apps used by the public to document and archive videos of ICE activities were removed by
Apple and
Google from their respective app stores. Also in October,
Meta removed a
Facebook group page dedicated to tracking ICE agents, at the Justice Department's request. In January 2026, following the
killing of Renée Good, tens of thousands protested across various cities in America. On January 30, protestors organized a "National Shutdown" to protest ICE actions, with protestors across the country leaving work and school to protest "ICE's reign of terror". These agents were reportedly assigned to the security team for U.S. Vice President
JD Vance. The protests, led by student groups, escalated into confrontations near the Milan Olympic Village, where police used tear gas and water cannons against the demonstrators.
Publicity campaign The agency's aggressive and meme-heavy publicity campaign was run by political appointees in their 20s, and received criticism from political commentators and scholars for being unprofessional and intentionally cruel.
The Atlantic interviewed current and former ICE officials who criticized a flashy video posted by ICE with rap music, Trump's name, and vehicles with wrappings the color of Trump's private plane costing roughly $100,000 each (with plans to wrap 2,000 more) as "the transformation of ICE from an agency focused on legalistic immigration procedures into a political instrument and propaganda tool". The
Southern Poverty Law Center found the DHS using "white nationalist and anti-immigrant images and slogans in recruitment materials" for ICE and that some "images and language appear to come directly from antisemitic and neo-Nazi publications and a white Christian nationalist website".
Excessive force . Several allegations and documented incidents of the agents using excessive force in response to protesters and migrants whether unprovoked or disproportionate to the situation have been documented. Violent encounters between ICE, migrants, and protestors have occurred following ICE's adoption of more aggressive tactics and sweeps of neighborhoods. Following January 2026 killings of American citizens,
The Economist wrote that the agency embodies a "macho culture" and has "revelled in the wanton use of force". It described ICE's closing of its internal Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, rush to brand victims and protestors as "terrorists", repeated defiance of court orders, and attempts to ensure all investigations remain under its control as examples of impunity that would lead to more violence.
The New York Times interviewed several local police chiefs across the country who complained that aggressive ICE tactics were endangering residents, violating civil rights, and reversing efforts since the
George Floyd protests to restore public trust in the police.
Authoritarianism and Gestapo analogy says "That guy is protected by
absolute immunity."|start=16:48 Various criticism have been made asserting a relationship between ICE and
authoritarianism in the US.
The New York Times described the comparisons as a result of the "specter of masked men killing American citizens during protests has raised fears of authoritarianism and talk of resistance, with many residents saying America's 250-year experiment in democracy is imperiled". Critics of ICE have frequently described the agency as
fascist or compared it to
fascist institutions.
Rahm Emanuel described ICE as "a lawless mob". Journalist and historian
Garrett M. Graff criticized ICE and CBP's domestic policing, comparing its current status as "a fascist secret police" stemming from post-9/11 security policy. ICE has been criticized and compared to the Gestapo, referring to the , the official
secret police of
Nazi Germany and
Nazi-occupied Europe that
persecuted targets of the Nazi regime, including
Jews,
political opponents, and other
dissenters. Some have criticized comparisons to
the Holocaust and
Nazis as risking "oversimplifying and
trivializing history".
Terror Media sources, politicians, and others have described ICE activities, particularly during
Operation Metro Surge, as
state terror. Democratic politicians and legal experts have criticized some ICE actions as an example of "political intimidation".
Presence at polling locations ICE has historically not been stationed at or conducted enforcement actions at polling places, with its
acting director saying "There's no reason for us to deploy to a polling facility". However, concerns about ICE appearing at polls have surged amid political rhetoric by those in Trump's orbit suggesting federal agents would be deployed around polling stations in the 2026 midterm elections. The White House later said there were no formal plans to do so, without ruling it out as a possibility. ==Organization==