The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, otherwise known as ICE, has thousands of people in custody. Families are torn apart, children are in cages, parents are locked away, due to the pure need of bettering their life. The fear of the unknown, of new people with new cultures, of new scapegoats, allows the ignorance towards immigration to be perpetuated. Through the very words of our President down to the words of children trapped in cages, the necessary removal of ICE can lead to the betterment of our country and how we treat our neighbors.

The topic of immigration has always been inherently linked with my cultural identity. In today’s world, the words “Latino” and “immigrant” coincide. I don't remember the first time I learned about immigrantion and ICE. I asked many of my Latino friends and they dont remember it either. We grew up knowing that either our parents, grandparents, or even ourselves, came to this country to find a better life. But we also knew that this “better life” could be taken away by some invisible boogeyman. Little did we know that this boogeyman was a federal agency. 

In recent years, the small call for the abolition of ICE has become a scream. Protestors march and carry signs proclaiming “Abolish ICE”, politicians make it the backbone of their platform, and university students use their knowledge and position to educate others on it. 

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement division was created as a response to the attacks on September 11th as a way to prevent and protect us from terrorist threats. Chronologically, ICE is younger than I am. Immigration enforcement was originally handled by the Department of Labor, then the Department of Justice, and now it is currently overseen by the Department of Homeland security. Immigration is overseen by the same agency that prevents terrorism. The very placement of ICE further paints a bigger portrait, connecting immigration with terrorism. It shifts the fear attacks towards incoming immigrants. The rhetoric of high crime rates and detrimentality stems from the link of immigration and terrorism. This idea is perpetuated by the hateful rhetoric that is spewed by the President when he calls immigrants “rapists” and “criminals”. 

One of the main functions of ICE is to detain and deport undocumented immigrants but in recent years, the numbers of arrests have skyrocketed and harsh policies have been encacted. When Barack Obama took office, he continued Bush-era tactics and deportation numbers were astronomical.He was known as the “Deporter in Chief”. But eventually, he prioritized deporting only those with criminal records and his numbers decreased. When Presidant Trump took office, he changed course and called for the deportation of all undocumented immigrants. One month under the Trump Administration, the zero-tolerance policy was implemented. It called for the hiring of thousands of new ICE agents and for the deportation against all removable aliens. 

Tom Homan, the acting director of ICE, had this to say about the zero tolerance policy at a press conference at the White House,  “ If you are in this country illegally...you need to get worried. Get that message clear that there is no safe haven here. We are going to look for you at your home and your place of employment. You are not welcome in the United States”. These words are a stark contrast to the words engraved on one of the most important symbols of our nation: The Statue of Liberty. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”. In the present day it's “ give me your poor”, unless they come from “crap countries”. It gives me “your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”, unless those masses contain brown asylum seekers. 

The purpose of ICE is to enforce the rule of law. However, ICE goes beyond such standards. When the threat of deportation is making it impossible for people to show up for their court dates, for children to get an education, or for women to report their abusers, it can be seen that there is point than to just terrorize these communities. US Representative for the 9th District of NY, Yvette Clarke calls out Ice in her statement “ As ICE terrorizes our nation, we call it what it is: domestic terrorism from our own government”. 

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, as defined by the Patriot Act, domestic terrorism is now classified as “dangerous to human life that is a violation of the criminal laws of a state of the United States, if the act appears to be intended to:  intimidate or coerce a civilian population and to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping.” (How the USA Patriot Act Redefines Domestic Terrorism).  The actions would also have to take place in the jurisdiction of the United States for it to be considered domestic terrorism. 

The presence of ICE and the threat of deportation has been used to intimidate immigrant populations. Parents are afraid to drop their kids off at school because they see on the news that ICE agents could be there. They are afraid to seek medical treatment. They are afraid to report domestic violence or any other types of crimes, which also make them less likely to aid with police investigations. This intimidation can be seen in many cases involving undocumented immigrants but it is most apparent in the tragic case of Luz Gonzalez, a four year old little girl who was struck and killed by an SUV while her mom bent down to her show that had fallen off. The driver of the car, Jeannette Maria, did not stop after hitting the little girl and drives off. She is later pulled over by the police and she states that she didn't know she had hit the girl and it is ruled an accident. Marias brother is a sargent in the NYPD and it said that he had threatened to call ICE on Luz’s undocumented family if they pressed charges. The threat of deportation is being used to gain control over the community and maintain vigilance. 

The separation of families at the border can be seen as the kidnapping that is mentioned in the domestic terrorism defintion. Children still in diapers are ripped away from the loving arms of their parents and into the cold and dark cages seen in ice detention centers. A coalition of attorneys with the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law talked to children at the detention centers. One 16 year old girl says “ We are in a metal cage with 20 other teenagers...we have one mat we need to share...it is very cold...we each got a mylar blanket but it is not enough”. A 17 year old boy states “ we have not been able to shower...no soap to wash our hands...we have not been given a toothbrush or toothpaste.”. 

The lack of basic necessities is not the only thing that has happened to those children. The New York times states “ The federal government received more than 4,500 complaints in four years about the sexual abuse of immigrant children who were being held at government-funded detention facilities, including an increase in complaints while the Trump administration’s policy of separating migrant families at the border was in place” Ice guards have been systemically sexually asssulting children. ICE agents are preying on the most vulnerable in our communities. 

Children are not the only ones who are abused in these detention centers. Dawn Wooten, a nurse working at an ICE detention center in Georgia, made startling allegations about the treatment of the women detained there. She alleges a lack of medical care and unsafe work practices that facilitated the spread of COVID-19.She also says that immigrant women received questionable hysterectomies. What are “questionable hysterectomies” you might ask?. They are hysterectomies, the medical procedure of removing various reproductive organs, that might not have been needed, which resulted in many women becoming sterile. This echoes back to the dark past America has with force sterilization such as right before the civil rights movement when doctors were performing forced hysterectomies on black women. Nancy Perlosi, Speaker of the House, had this to say on the matter. "If true, the appalling conditions described in the whistleblower complaint – including allegations of mass hysterectomies being performed on vulnerable immigrant women – are a staggering abuse of human rights”. Pelosi is correct in her choice to call this a human rights abuse. Those words can be applied to most of what is done to immigrants at these detention camps. 

While the abuses of the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency are apparent, there are still those who are opposed to the idea of abolishing ICE. While it is understandable to be opposed to open borders, it must be known that that is not what the movement is calling for. They are calling for the abolition of a broken and corrupt system so that a just and humane immigration-enforcement system can take its place. There those that believe that getting rid of ICE would lead to more immigration and thus higher crime rates. This however has been proven to be inaccurate by many research studies. A 2018 study done by the CATO institute, a libertarian think tank who would be the ones to most likely oppose undocumumented immigration, showed that “all immigrants have a lower criminal incarceration rate  and there are lower crime rates in the neighborhoods where they live”. 

    Now with all these reasons as to why ICE should be abolished, we have to discuss what means what it should be replaced with. ICE is made up of three divisions. The Office of the principal Legal Advisor (OPLA), Homeland Security Investigation(HSI), and Enforcement and Removal Operations(ERO). HSI cracks down on transnational crime. They take down child pornographers, cartels,and human traffickers. The ERO is the one that is in charge of raids and actually detaining undocumented people. In 2018, senior agents in the HSI and OPLA wrote a letter to Homeland Security Secretary asking to be divorced from the ERO because being associated with the administration’s harsh immigration policies is making it hard for them to their jobs. When we talk about the abolition of ICE we need to start with getting rid of the ERO and relocating the HSI and OPLA into another division of Homeland Security. We must also make a pathway to citizenship easier. Making the pathway for legal entry easier would lessen the amount of illegal crossings. Instead of waiting for years to be allowed into the country or for your paperwork, it can be done in a more efficient manner. The money that was given to ICE to train and hire thousands of new agents can be reallocated to hiring more people to review asylum and green card applications. In place of ICE, the United States could increase public investment in an immigration agency, like USCIS, which  delivers services to immigrants and that would be responsible for facilitating compliance-assistance programs. This agency should not be housed in the Department for Homeland Security. Instead, the immigration agency should be housed in a department, like Health and Human Services, that has a mission consistent with appropriate immigration policy goals: to look after the well-being and economic vitality of immigrants and of the nation as a whole.

    ICE has failed by every measure. It has brutalized communities and caused widespread terror through its cruel and harsh tactics. The abolition of ICE would mean the abolition of one the most prolific domestic terrorist groups. As a country we have always prided ourselves as being a safe haven for the world’s “huddled masses”, but with the existence of ICE it is easy for the American  people to forget our history. That we too were immigrants once. We should be willing to help those who are seeking a better life because at one point, someone was willing to help us.