Since the beginning of Donald Trump’s second presidency, one of his most notable actions has been his use of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This agency has a long history in the U.S., but it has been used as Trump’s ultimate tool for imposing his will within the U.S. borders.
The purpose of this institution is clear, namely to remove all illegal immigrants from the U.S. and especially those who have committed crimes. Moreover, its methods are questionable, to say the least. Wearing masks, riding in armoured trucks with assault weapons, armored vests and ambushing several undocumented people while taking legal action to stabilize themselves within the U.S. legal system have sown mistrust among their own citizens.
Comparisons have been made between ICE and several repressive institutions of the past, including the Italian Black Shirts, Gestapo and other police and paramilitary forces from historical dictatorships. No wonder; the videos showing the arrests resemble more kidnappings than legitimate detentions by an authority representing a state with ideals such as those supposedly defended by the federal government of the United States.
In addition, when we talk about ICE agents, unfortunately, we are not talking about officers with the same training as traditional police. Anyone would expect these types of “special” units would receive some kind of special training to deal with the unusual situations they will encounter.
However, the reality is quite the opposite. ICE agents are often ordinary people sent to arrest others on the street with no warning. Furthermore, despite what U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and the rest of the officials in the Trump administration say they do all the correspondent intelligence to arrest people who are suspected of breaking the law, there have already been reports of U.S. citizens and documented immigrants being detained solely based on their racial profile.
ICE is a two headed monster; ICE itself and the bureaucracy that controls it.
On one hand, ICE agents are anything but professional. Recruits behave like school bullies, who go in groups because they are unable to do anything alone, only attacking immigrants they find when they feel safe behind their trucks, their weapons or their companions.
They will say that they are being persecuted in retaliation for their “heroic work,” but one must ask: Who can persecute a contingent of heavily armed and masked men? Hardly anyone in the U.S. could attempt a violent action against ICE and get angry, including organized criminal groups.
But at this point, it has become clear ICE is unable to focus on illegal immigrants who are legitimately dangerous. They do not hunt narcos, nor members of the Cartel de los Soles or Mexican cartels. They capture immigrants who have been here for many years, contributing to the country, even more than several ICE members.
As said above, they are not the elite force the government wants to show. They are just a group of misfits who found a way to draw their hatred and xenophobia toward a population that has probably helped the country more than ICE agents in the past, that keeps boosting the economy of a country that is not theirs, while earning a living.
On the other hand, government activity to antagonize the country’s Latino population is more a reaction to a larger cultural war than just a focused problem of xenophobia. But that does not mean many of Trump’s officials seem to have personal motivations against such a large community, which usually takes jobs that no one wants.
Latinos and especially immigrants have contributed to the most unwanted jobs by other ethnicities. They have become the basis of the economy, and it is a fact that has been recognized by the president himself.
But it is this blind anger that leads them to make illogical decisions to persecute a specific population, to the point of permitting the use of racial profiling to arrest people. Comparisons with the Third Reich are always tempting, but mostly exaggerated. America remains a democracy, perhaps not perfect and with a marked tendency to authoritarianism, but a democracy after all.
However, the kind of tools and resources the government uses, not only in cases like ICE, but also in the way they carry out their internal purges through influencers like Laura Loomer, are of a radicalization that becomes worthy of comparison with totalitarian governments.
The censorship of critics, the witch-hunting of anyone who does not support all opinions, the excessive use of force and state authority to use the monopoly of violence with the deployment of military forces in cities are all symptoms of a failing system, a regime that shakes under its own weight.
The incessant and constant lies, the inaccuracies, inconsistencies and half-truths that are often said by Trump only confirms that there is no real purpose to the problems currently afflicting the country. It is clear proof that the executive management of the presidency has become the mirror of the modern Narcissus.
ICE is just another symptom; a group of radicals and cowards gathered under the slogan to go in a gang for a group of underprivileged, who in normal conditions would not even dare to look.
