Caitlin Dickerson

Does ICE have to be the agency to do it?

I don't think necessarily.

I mean, the criminal justice system is involved in immigration enforcement and could take the lead there.

But the idea of, you know—

Taking this issue away from one of the highest funded law enforcement agencies in the world with, you know, a quarter of a million employees at DHS.

I mean, that's a huge shift in reorganization of government that I don't hear very serious conversation about.

sufficient to actually make that happen.

But I think the argument that I do hear most loudly against ICE is that the agency is kind of rotten at the core because it has this confusing, contradictory mission that we talked about where these officers have been told it's your job to keep the country safe from bad guys, but you're funded like a military.

And then using that funding and using those weapons and gear to go out and arrest people who are working at car washes and grocery stores.

There is a tension at its heart.

Ways of attempting to reform it in the past have completely stalled in Congress.

But, of course, we've seen presidents do it.

So the Obama administration, in response to criticism of ICE, created these enforcement priorities that directed officers—

against arresting and deporting people who didn't have criminal records, had strong ties to the United States.

Trump got rid of those priorities in his first administration.

Biden put them back into place.

Trump got rid of them again.

Congress could codify something like that into law.

And in fact, you hear Tom Homan himself, Trump's border czar, saying this all the time.

If the American public isn't happy with what ICE is doing, tell Congress to change the law.