ICE AND ITS TACTICS
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a division of the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS), just got a huge budget increase from the Big Beautiful Bill (BBB). ICE will receive $75 billion over 4 years “for everything from new detention facilities to more agents and better technology.” During the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency, 65,682 migrants were arrested and deported. The Trump administration claims that 3 out of 4 of those deported were “criminal illegal aliens” and that it is “putting the worst first.” But a recent study by the Deportation Data Project suggests that nearly one half of the migrants arrested in early June had no criminal record.
ICE agents wear “bullet-proof vests, masks, hats and sunglasses to hide their faces, and guns strapped to their sides.” They hang around “car washes, Home Depots, bus stops, street markets,” and sometimes tear-gas onlookers recording encounters. ICE raids look like police- state tactics. Add to this the crucial role that many of the targeted migrants play in the US economy, especially in construction, agriculture and hospitality, ICE raids seem especially pernicious.
Sources: ICE Report, 4/29/25, The Economist, 7/7/25, Human Rights Watch, 7/12/25 and David Bier, CATO Institute, 2025