REINING IN ICE

The Trump administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency’s record of lawlessness, cruelty, and unnecessary violence is well documented. Its budget is under consideration in Congress now. I urge you to contact your U.S. Senators NOW and ask them to block the budget for ICE until thorough, local investigations of the recent killings are underway and unless it includes strong accountability and transparency measures.

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The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency’s record of lawlessness, cruelty, and unnecessary violence (aimed at detainees, protesters, peaceful monitors, and bystanders) is well documented. It and the Trump administration routinely lie about what it’s done and who it targets and detains. Increasingly, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which historically operated on the border, is joining ICE in its actions well away from the border. Both ICE and CBP are agencies within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), headed by Secretary Kristi Noem. It’s clear that for ICE, CBP, and DHS:

·       Cruelty is the point (for intimidation and political purposes), and

·       Lawlessness is a feature not a bug, i.e., intentional and not a mistake.

The American public strongly supports reining in ICE, both in terms of its scale and scope, as well as its violent and lawless behavior. It’s critical, and past time, that Congress do everything it can to rein in ICE. Its budget is under consideration in Congress now. The House narrowly passed its budget with no significant provisions to rein in ICE. I strongly encourage you to contact your U.S. Senators NOW and ask them to block the budget for ICE until:

·       Thorough investigations by local law enforcement of the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti are underway with cooperation from all federal officials and agents.

And to oppose any ICE budget that doesn’t include strong accountability and transparency measures including:

·       Prohibiting ICE agents from wearing masks and carrying guns. (If they need law enforcement support, they should contact local or state police.)

·       Requiring them to wear personal identification. (All local and state police officers do.)

·       Requiring them to have warrants from judges to arrest someone or enter someone’s home. (As local and state police officers do.)

·       Clarifying that ICE agents do NOT have immunity from prosecution under state laws.

(Contact information for your US Senators is at http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.)

ICE’s budget should be cut. It has grown faster than can be responsibly implemented and spent, while also being inappropriately larger than other agencies. The Trump / Republican budget bill in July doubled the ICE budget to $19 billion a year with an additional $17 billion a year for CBP. For the sake of comparison, FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) got less than $1 billion a year, and the FBI’s budget is just $11 billion.

ICE’s leaders, starting from the top with DHS Secretary Noem, should be impeached or disciplined for their illegal actions. For example, for the detentions of U.S. citizens and those with no criminal record; for illegal deportations, use of violence, and forced entries into people’s homes; and for violations of judges’ orders.

Here are a few figures that highlight the scale of ICE and its actions: [1]

·       As of August 2025, over 60,000 people were in ICE detention and 70% of them had no criminal convictions.

·       Roughly 200,000 people have been deported in 2025 through August. Over 50,000 of them were children under twelve and over 20,000 of them were under 5 years old.

·       Under Trump, the overall number of monthly detentions has tripled to roughly 45,000. Fifteen thousand of them had criminal records (up 50% from under Biden), 15,000 had pending criminal charges (but no convictions) (up 200%), while 15,000 had no criminal record (up 1,400%). Clearly, the Trump administration’s rhetoric about detaining only serious criminals is a lie. Under President Biden, ICE detained about 15,000 people per month. Ten thousand had criminal records and 5,000 had pending criminal charges, while 1,000 or fewer had no criminal record.

·       ICE is clearly targeting states for political reasons (i.e., where Democrats are in control and not those with Republicans in control). For example, Texas, with an estimated 1.7 million undocumented immigrants and Florida with about one million have the 2nd and 3rd largest numbers of undocumented immigrants (after California with about two million). However, there have not been big efforts by ICE to detain immigrants in Texas and Florida. However, Minnesota, with fewer than 100,000 undocumented immigrants and Maine with 5,000 are currently experiencing large ICE detention campaign.

By the way, there is lots of good news, on the ICE front as well as elsewhere! For example, Jess Craven’s Chop Wood Carry Water blog’s most recent good news Sunday posts here and here include:

·       Spotify has stopped running ICE recruitment ads.

·       Avelo Airlines has stopped deportation flights. (They say it’s part of ‘streamlining its network’ but I believe that protests and boycotts are a big reason.)

·       Six federal prosecutors and an FBI agent have resigned due to the Justice Department’s failure to appropriately investigate the shooting of Renee Good.

·       Minneapolis residents in huge numbers are protesting, as well as organizing and volunteering to support immigrant members of their community. Truly inspiring!!

·       A judge ruled that ICE and DHS can’t detain or tear gas peaceful protesters.

·       Clergy occupied Target headquarters in Minneapolis and got a meeting with the CEO to ask him to stop letting ICE in their stores.

·       57% of Americans now view ICE unfavorably and a slight plurality favor abolishing it.

·       58% of Americans now say that Trump's second term has been a failure.

·       Facing backlash, the Trump administration restored over $2 billion in mental health and addiction funding, just one day after announcing cuts.

·       Congress, in its work on the budget, is quietly rejecting almost all the deepest cuts to federal programs that Trump requested, rebuking his efforts to slash funding for foreign aid, global health, scientific research, the arts, and more in a bipartisan repudiation.

·       A federal judge in California became the second one to dismiss a Justice Department case seeking to force state officials to give the department an unredacted list of the state’s voters.

·       CBS Evening News’ audience is down 23% probably due to its new, right-wing slant.

·       Rep. Robin Kelly (D-IL) filed articles of impeachment against DHS Secretary Noem for obstruction of Congress, violation of the public trust, and self-dealing. Over 50 House Democrats have signed on as co-sponsors.

·       The Washington National Opera will move its performances out of the Kennedy Center, in perhaps the largest rebuke yet to Trump’s renaming of the Kennedy Center with his name.

·       Democratic and Republican Senators agreed unanimously to mount a plaque honoring the Capitol police officers who fought Trump’s insurrection mob at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Republican House Speaker Johnson has refused to mount the plaque, which is required by law.

·       More than 1,000 companies are suing the Trump administration over tariffs, demanding refunds.

·       A major Catholic newspaper called Vice President JD Vance a “moral stain” and accused him of having a “twisted and wrongheaded view of Christianity”.

[1]      Mother Jones, Nov./Dec. 2025, “American gulag,” (https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/10/american-gulag-immigration-police-state-ice-deportation-detention-centers-trump-miller/)