You don’t need the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. The reason why is pretty simple.
The agency was created as a reaction to 9/11 with a mission to find and remove terrorists and transnational criminals, people involved in drug trafficking, human trafficking, big, serious stuff. That is why it is so militarized. It was supposed to go after the heavy duty bad guys.
It was not meant to use counterterrorism tactics to snatch up fruit vendors and homebuilders, people working who aren’t a threat but who don’t have papers ( a misdemeanor!). This is a mismatch.
Counterterrorism and immigration law enforcement can just be under the FBI or Border Patrol, which clearly has its own problems, but at least has a reason to exist. ICE does not. But thanks to Stephen Miller and his arrest quotas, which at times have been as high as 3000 people a day, we now have a bunch of hastily trained Jack Ryan wannabes pointing guns at your nanny.
It is madness, and often it’s murder. Look, Congress reorganized immigration law enforcement in 2003. It should do it again. Save the guns and the tactical gear for the bad guys and treat those with no papers and no criminal record, with the level of severity that’s required for a misdemeanor.
Ben Sheehan is a political commentator and digital creator. He specializes in civics education, which is showcased in his latest book, What Does the Constitution Actually Say?: A Non-Boring Guide to How Our Democracy Is Supposed to Work. Check out his Substack, Politics Made Easy.
