How ICE entered its most aggressive era — and what comes next
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is In Conversation from Apple News. I'm Shamita Basu. Today, inside ICE's rapid expansion and where it could go from here.
Since President Trump took office just over a year ago, federal immigration enforcement has substantially expanded, with a significantly larger budget and thousands of agents deployed in aggressive operations in cities across the U.S. Nowhere has that escalation been more visible than in Minneapolis, where federal officers killed two American citizens in January, Renee Good and Alex Preddy, in separate incidents, amplifying already intense public outcry. Although the Trump administration has been quick to defend the actions of federal agents in previous violent incidents, ruling out excessive use of force even before investigations are conducted, this week, Trump struck a somewhat different tone when asked by Fox News host Will Kane about Preti's death.
I think the whole thing is terrible. I don't like the fact that he was carrying a gun that was fully loaded and he had two magazines with him, and it's pretty unusual. But nobody knows when they saw the gun, how they saw the gun, everything else. Bottom line, it was terrible.
That slight shift in rhetoric was accompanied by a change in leadership. The administration removed U.S. Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino from overseeing the Minneapolis operation and brought in Border Czar Tom Homan to take his place. And on Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security said the federal agents who shot Pretty and Good had been placed on administrative leave.
President Trump is changing course, shifting his tone. That's Caitlin Dickerson, a staff writer at The Atlantic. I think part of that is him taking a look at the video of these two most violent incidents and also just hearing from lots of people who are calling into question these narratives and him in real time trying to figure out the best way to proceed to try to hold on to his power and the support that he has.
Kaitlyn won a Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of family separations under the first Trump administration, and she's been closely following ICE's activity through the years and especially the changes over the last 12 months. I wanted to sit down with Kaitlyn to get her perspective on how we got here, what's happening inside ICE and Border Patrol today, and what these latest developments could mean going forward. When we spoke earlier this week, I started by asking her how to understand these recent shifts from Trump.
I think it's all optics, right? And I've reported on Trump from the very beginning of his entrance into national politics.
How has ICE's budget and operations changed since the Trump administration?
He was not somebody who was personally passionate about immigration enforcement to the extent that he was going to hang his career on it. You know, Trump began to embrace immigration enforcement when he saw that speeches Stephen Miller had written for him in 2016 moving forward were were very popular at his rallies. He was getting a huge response from people who'd come to watch him talk about his policy agenda. And so he moved closer and closer to this issue of immigration as he saw that it was helping him win support and win power. And I think that's the same reason why we're seeing the modulation of the message that's happening now. because we have video and photo evidence of the harshest versions of this enforcement campaign, and they're incontrovertible.
And he can see the public questioning these efforts and is responding in kind.
Well, let's take a step back and talk about ICE as an agency. What was ICE created to do originally, and how different does it look today?
So to talk about the history of ICE, quickly go back to 9-11 and a terrorist attack that shook the nation. And the Bush administration decided they had to do whatever they could to prevent another such attack. A 9-11 commission that was formed came up with this idea of a Department of Homeland Security. So DHS was created for the first time.
What incidents in Minneapolis have raised public outcry against ICE?
And within it, this new federal agency, ICE, was established at the same time.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:03–2:55
2
How has ICE's budget and operations changed since the Trump administration?
2:55–4:27
3
What incidents in Minneapolis have raised public outcry against ICE?
4:27–6:34
4
How has President Trump's rhetoric about ICE shifted recently?
6:34–25:40
5
What is the historical context of ICE's creation and its evolving mission?
25:40–30:55
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from Apple News Today
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