ICE capades: the roundup
A new PWS weekly on the ghoulish acts, dastardly deeds, and unseemly actions of the country's now-biggest LEO
As ICE becomes one of the largest law enforcement organizations on the planet, it couldn’t be more crucial for real-time reporting by journalists with experience on both the migration and authoritarianism beats. This is the first installment of weekly updates, the ‘ICE capades’, on the doings and dastardly deeds of the US’s new anti-migrant army.
ICE is on a hiring spree
The Office of Immigration Customs Enforcement in the United States is flush with cash after US President Donald Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful’ spending bill earmarked $30 billion for ICE’s deportation and enforcement operations, more than tripling the agency’s budget.
And they are using that money in part on a recruitment drive. The agency has announced plans to hire 10,000 officers before the end of 2025. As part of those efforts, ICE is offering $50,000 signing bonuses over three years, up to $60,000 in federal student loan repayments, and increased retirement benefits.
In a press release from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Tuesday, a representative asked “patriots” to “join ICE in its mission to arrest murderers, pedophiles, gang members, rapists, and other criminal illegal aliens from America’s streets.”
Nearly half of the people in ICE custody have neither been convicted of nor charged with any crime, according to ICE’s own data.
In the same statement, DHS claimed that their recruitment drive has gathered more than 100,000 applicants for positions within ICE as part of their “Defend the Homeland” initiative.
But the public recruitment drive has also garnered harsh criticisms from critics who claim the agency has leaned on racist and fascist imagery and references in its advertisements.
In a post shared on social media on Monday, DHS wrote “Which way, American man?”, a quote appearing to reference Which Way, Western Man, a 1978 book by self-described white supremacist William Gayley Simpson. In his book, Simpson praises Hitler, states Jews must be killed, and claims that no government that exists to serve more than one race can possibly be just.
The phrase has also been a part of right-wing online meme culture for years.
But that’s just the latest in a series of controversial posts that seem to be nods to ideas associated with white supremacy and fascism. Critics on social media, and in public statements, have called the pattern an intentional nod to those ideologies that goes far beyond mere dog-whistles.
ICE and DHS have repeatedly denied any links between their public communications and white supremacy or neo-fascism.

The IRS begins handing over taxpayer data.
As part of immigration investigations, the US Internal Revenue Service began handing over sensitive tax data to DHS and ICE.
The records include personal information such as names, addresses, and tax data of immigrants, which DHS plans to use to locate individuals it says are facing removal orders or who are the subjects of federal criminal investigations.
According to CNN, however, the White House is disappointed by the data result. DHS asked for detailed information for 1.23 million people, but only a small fraction, less than 5%, was shared because the dataset ICE sent to the IRS did not have exact matching data to confirm the individuals they were looking for.
Civil rights organizations have criticized the precedent, stating that the sharing of confidential taxpayer information without a court warrant violates the 4th amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits illegal search and seizure by law enforcement officials.
Border Patrol has been under-reporting deaths by as much as 40%
According to migrant advocacy group No More Deaths, which has been building an online database recording the number of migrants who have died crossing the US-Mexico border since 2024, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has been under-reporting deaths by as much as 40%.
They blame asylum restrictions under the first Trump administration that were then tightened even further under former President Joe Biden for a spike in deaths, particularly in the Sonoran Desert and West Texas regions of the border.
Squalid conditions at ICE detention sites in New York and at “Alligator Alcatraz”
On Tuesday, a federal judge ordered a series of measures intended to address squalid conditions at an ICE detention site located at 26 Federal Plaza. The judge addressed complaints of severe overcrowding, filthy cells that smelled like sewage and urine, a lack of water, and migrants packed densely for days into concrete areas with no beds or sleeping materials.
Meanwhile, at the DHS migration detention site ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ in the Florida Everglades, attorneys for migrants held there, as well as former employees, say that an illness has swept the facility, propagated by unsanitary and unsafe conditions.
Over the weekend, Rivas Velásquez, a 38-year-old Venezuelan man and well-known influencer on Venezuelan social media, collapsed after reporting being unable to breathe. He was initially erroneously reported to have died in public statements by his family, but DHS officials have since confirmed he was sent to another facility in Texas.
But according to his attorney, Eric Lee, a respiratory illness is sweeping the facility, affecting hundreds of thousands of migrants held there in close quarters.
“There are people who are losing breath,” he said in comments to the Guardian. “There are people who are walking around coughing on one another. Their requests for masks from the guards are denied, and they are only allowed to shower once or maybe twice a week.”
In recent weeks, a state-licensed corrections officer has claimed in comments to multiple media organizations that she contracted Covid-19 after working at the camp in unsanitary conditions for about a week last month. She was subsequently fired shortly afterwards.
Her descriptions of the detention center include overcrowded facilities with little or no access to water, and toilets overflowing with feces.
Local media in Florida have reported a large number of ambulances entering and leaving the facility in recent weeks.
ICE is detaining US citizens, a lot of them
As part of the tens of thousands of ICE detentions so far this year, dozens of US citizens have been detained, the majority of whom are Latinos. Some have been held for days or weeks before they have been able to prove their legal status.
ICE has arrested US citizens protesting ICE operations in San Francisco. They have swept up multiple US citizens in Los Angeles, including a disabled teenager outside of his school, in a case of mistaken identity.
Multiple citizens in New York have spoken to local press there about their detentions by ICE officials. A raid in Alabama resulted in the detention of another in Alabama, which happened to be caught on video. Images of the brutal arrest went viral after being broadcast by Telemundo news.
In Arizona, multiple US citizens of Latino descent have accused ICE of racial profiling after they were detained by ICE. A Florida judge sided with the ACLU in a case of the illegal arrest of a US citizen who was detained by Florida sheriffs.
Fifty democratic Senators released an open letter on Tuesday that denounced “urgent concerns about a growing pattern of civil rights violations against U.S. citizens during immigration sweeps.”
“ICE has also reportedly detained citizens in immigration detention facilities, sometimes for over a week,” wrote the lawmakers.” ICE has even deported U.S. citizens. In multiple cases, ICE has deported U.S. citizen children along with their undocumented parents, reportedly against the families’ wishes.”
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