How Ice is getting away with its aggressive and secretive tactics under Trump
977Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has become the highest funded federal law enforcement agency - outstripping agencies like the FBI - under Donald Trump’s new budget bill.
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The US president’s so-called ‘big, beautiful bill’ authorised roughly $170bn for immigration and border-related operations - a huge sum that would make Ice bigger than many countries’ militaries. Critics warn this will unleash more raids, disrupt the economy and severely restrict access to humanitarian protections.
A new detention facility dubbed ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ has also been created in southern Florida while reports emerge of a succession of alleged abuses at Ice operated jails in the state since January - including detainees at one Miami immigration jail being made to kneel to eat food from Styrofoam plates ‘like dogs’, according to a report released on Monday.
But even before detained people reach jail, Ice’s increasingly aggressive and secretive actions have made them face accusations of being ‘ominous and clouded in mystery, and clearly weapons for the Trump regime to violate rights and literally disappear people’, according to Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism.
While there are efforts to curb Ice, including the introduction of a bill by Democratic senators to prohibit agents from wearing masks and 12 immigrants suing the Trump administration for arresting people at immigration courts, critics say there is reason to be concerned about the agency’s growing impunity.
‘When it runs out of brown and Black people to deport, Ice - perhaps under another name - will be left with the authority and capability to surveil, seize and disappear anyone the administration considers undesirable,’ writes Brooklyn journalist Judith Levine.
But how can Ice get away with these measures?
Watch as the Guardian’s US live news editor Chris Michael explains how they’re about to become the most heavily funded law enforcement agency in the US – and to read in depth about what this means for the country, tap the link ► https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/jul/23/trump-ice-data-deportations-detention
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