ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has been prevalent in our society for over 20 years, but only this past year did we begin to see its impact and actions. Although it has been around for this long, not many people know ICE’s history.
When looking at a historical movement, such as what is happening in the country right now, it is important to look at it as a whole and at its impact.
Many moments in history loop back to one specific problem or idea. It is important to note the impact this can have on society, as it will affect people for generations to come
ICE’s long, controversial history
ICE is not any older than a good chunk of Gen Z. ICE was created by the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which was passed after the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The idea of ICE has spanned over 100 years. We can see many of their goals mimic those of laws enforced with hunting Native Americans and Slaves
As we know from our history books, Native Americans were hunted through this country so white people could take their land. They gathered these communities and forced them into new areas away from their land.
As well, during slavery, they had something called “Slave patrol,” whose badges look eerily similar to those of our modern-day sheriffs.
These were white men hired by the government in the South to control the slave population.
Their radical history formed over the idea that all of one race is bad.
The Bush Administration
ICE was created under the Bush Administration. They were in place to work on deporting illegal immigrants. This came after the tragic events of September eleventh.
During this time, we saw a rise in hate crimes against people from the Middle East, whether they were or looked like it, they were targeted.
This was not the only thing we saw change as we also saw TSA and Border Patrol be more secure.
During his administration, Bush sought to decrease the number of illegal immigrants in the workforce. With this, they set up a system to weed out the applicants when hiring people with a system we now know as E-Verify.
As well, Bush ended the “Catch and Return” policy in the country. The policy change meant that Immigration enforcement would hold these people until they could send them somewhere.
These changes meant that there would be raids through places of work to remove these immigrants.
Where this was seen most notably was the 2008 Postville, Iowa, raid, which arrested almost 400 people.
This was a big act for Bush at the end of his administration.
The Obama Administration
During this time, Obama had more time with ICE than other Presidents, as he was the first President to have the presence of ICE during his two terms.
The Obama administration is a bit of a sore subject for certain people in terms of its immigration policy.
Although Obama was known as a more liberal-leaning president, he had very high deportation rates.
By the end of its two terms, the Obama Administration had deported 2.7 million people. Although during this time, the number of people attempting to cross the border illegally fell.
Now, when it comes to deportation, Obama’s main priority was to detain the convicted criminals, gang members, and national security threats.
Was he as hard as the right makes him out to be?
A main focus that is important to note during this time was the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA. This program is for people who were brought to the US as children.
With this program, immigrant children were able to seek protection from being deported and work in the US. Since this implementation, there have been 834,000 children positively affected by this.
The Trump Administration (First Term)
Whilst Obama was more of a low-key actor in the transition to where ICE is today, President Trump was more aggressive in his actions.
Trump during his first term, as well as his second, was more focused on deporting any immigrant he could.
A major point Trump pushed was building a wall to keep immigrants out. Trump promised an “Impenetrable” concrete wall.
The reality of this wall was anything but.
As we have seen, people have found their way around, over, under, or even sometimes crawled through to get past it.
What ended up happening was an attempt to replace existing car and pedestrian borders with around 30-foot-high metal billboard walls.
The thing about this was that it only put in about 40 feet of wall that was not already there.
He said that Mexico would pay for it, but in reality, it was our taxes.
Mexico did not pay a penny.
The Biden Administration
Similar to Obama, Biden used up ICE in many ways, but we just did not see the effects as much.
Trump, since the creation of ICE, was the only President to go into the elections to preach his ideals against immigrants.
That being said, Biden’s authority did not leave ICE untouched.
During President Biden’s four years in office, ICE arrested a little over half a million people in interior arrests.
During this time, about half a million people “arrested” were already obtained by border control but were handed over to ICE.
With this, 36% were convicted criminals, and 13% had pending charges.
Many of the people detained by ICE during this time did not go further than their arrest. Many were detained but kept in the states during his Presidency.
What is going on now?
We are currently at a point in history that will be talked about in years to come. The actions of ICE in 2026 have become deadly.
It is our First Amendment right to protest, but many are being threatened, and our president is encouraging it across the news.
Currently, what we see happen when someone gets killed by ICE is that the blame gets put on the victim, not the aggressor.
We are seeing in school districts the push of which side of history they will be on. Many schools at this moment are allowing ICE to come onto their campuses.
This is not the case for all, as some districts are implementing guidelines with the staff to protect the students.
The Effects of the Violence
January saw the deaths of two protestors in Minneapolis at the hands of ICE and their brutal actions.
Renne Nicole Good was a mother of three who was shot dead by an ICE officer for blowing a whistle in her car. It is claimed that she tried running over an officer in her car, but, as videos have proven, that is not true.
Alex Pretti was a protester who was an ICU nurse focused on helping others during the protest in Minnesota.
There are arguments about whether he was armed and threatening ICE agents. Although there have been videos contradicting this argument, showing that he was exercising his right to carry but never pulled it, the agents took it off his dead body.
After this assault, Trump took to Twitter not to condemn the actions of ICE but to put the blame on the victim.
As this was being written, there was the death of Linda Davis, as seen in the news.
A man fleeing ICE struck the Special education teacher’s car, leading to her death. While this news is being shared, we are still seeing confusion about what happened.
There were reportedly minutes that Davis was alive while ICE did not call for her to be treated by paramedics
This is something similar to what we saw with Good and Pretti.
Protesting the Administration
The masses are coming out to protest during this time to stop ICE, believing they are doing more harm than good.
This call for action has spread across the nation. From Minnesota to California to New York, we have witnessed just how widespread this call is.
Even now, we are seeing Highschoolers come out in protest of these actions.
During this time, when we are seeing the widespread message across social media, the corporations that are feeding into Trump are working to shadow-ban any mention of radical politics.
It has been seen across X and Meta that many influencers are not reaching their normal audience, typically seen when posting about immigration.
As well, there has been notably less being shown of protests going against ICE.
This is not something that is new, as during Trump’s presidency, there was a media blackout of any coverage reporting the Black Lives Matter protests across this country.
Although this has stopped no one. Posts are still being made.
Protests are still being held.
